wfn.org | GAC approves releasing $400,000 to NCC

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Note #6201 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

23-September-2000
00339

GAC approves releasing $400,000 to NCC, despite non-payment by the Methodist
Church

PC(USA) may have contributed to NCC's demise by not paying
  
by Evan Silverstein

MONTREAT, N.C. -- To give or not to give, that was the question facing the
General Assembly Council (GAC) Sept. 23 as it debated whether to release
$400,000 to the financially-drained National Council of Churches (NCC).

	The answer was to give. But the question was not resolved before much
discussion by commissioners and a failed amendment to postpone the decision
until the GAC's next meeting in February.

	"I suggest that the credibility of this body and this leadership and staff
is squarely on the line," said Clifford H. Sherrod Jr. of Midland, Texas,
speaking against the motion. "We've been burned and embarrassed before. We
do not need another surprising broadside from a undetected source." Sherrod
would later change his opnion in support of doling out the $400,000 in
bailout money, approved last February by the Council with five conditions
attached, four of which have been satisfied.

	The NCC finished 1999 with a budget shortfall of at least $4 million,
caused principally by fiscal mismanagement. That figure eventually grew to
$6.4 million by May. Another $100,000 of PC(USA) money -- from the Office of
the General Assembly (OGA) -- already has been paid.

	Still needed to fulfil the final requirement is the bulk of a $700,000
contribution by the United Methodist Church. The stipulation is part of the
only unmet requirement calling for other NCC member churches meeting the
rest of the $2 million needed to eliminate the deficit.

	Despite that, the GAC's executive committee approved action Wednesday
recommending that it send the "recapitalization" money to the NCC anyway,
since neither the PC(USA) nor the NCC could not control the actions of the
United Methodist Church. The motion to approve payment was approved with
only a handful of dissents.

	"The National Council under new leadership has made significant changes,"
said GAC chair Peter J. Pizor of Cody, Wyoming. "They have reduced
personnel. They have taken serious and meaningful steps to bring their books
in order."

	The PC(USA)'s money was also contingent, among other things, upon the NCC
approving a balanced budget for the year 2000, and upon the NCC allocating
enough money to rebuild its reserves.

	Church officials have said that much of the work of the venerable
ecumenical organization, including Bible translation, Crop Walks, and
humanitarian relief, are activities which are essential to Presbyterian
mission work. Resolving the NCC's current financial situation, church
leaders say, is important for the PC(USA)'s own mission outreach.

	"There is no guarantees that this money will do the kind of good we hope it
will do," said George Inadomi of South Pasadena, Calif., speaking in favor
of the motion to pay. "But I'm afraid if we don't do what we, I feel should
do, we may guarantee their demise."

	Another GAC member felt differently, however, making a motion to postpone
action on the motion to pay the $400,000 until the council's next meeting in
February.

	"I contend that any changes to that package deal requires repeating the
process, this is exceptionally true in light of the large number of new GAC
members," said John E. Tracy of Orlando, Fla., whose motion to postpone went
on to fail.

         The Methodists have paid $200,000 to the NCC, according to GAC
executive director John Detterick, who proposed to the executive committee
that it recommend the GAC approve payment. He said he was recently told by
officials of the denomination that it would seek approval from its mission
board this month for an additional $100,000 and from its finance board in
November for the remaining $400,000.

	Too long of a delay in payment by the Methodists and Presbyterians may mean
the demise of the NCC, according to an official of the organization, who
described the matter as a serious "cash flow urgency."

	"If this motion (to postpone action) succeeds and we do not proceed in the
near term, the payment of $400,000, that the question will surely be moot by
February," said the Rev. Phil Young, a Presbyterian serving as the NCC's
treasurer and chair of its administration and finance committee.

	If both parties who are major contributors to the National Council of
Churches are unable to meet these commitments as we believe them to be it
would be difficult for us to sustain the National Council of Churches in any
recognizable form."

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