wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Budget cuts win final approval

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Note #8226 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04218
May 7, 2004

Budget cuts win final approval

28 workers will lose jobs under plan approved by GAC panel

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - The executive committee of the General Assembly Council (GAC)
has approved a 2005-2006 budget-cutting plan that will cost 28 employees at
the Presbyterian Center their jobs.

The plan also outlines new work to be undertaken by the GAC, especially in
the areas of communication, mission funding and support for connections
between Presbyterians and worldwide mission.

The plan was approved as developed by senior GAC staff. No changes were
proposed by the executive committee, which is meeting at Louisville
Presbyterian Theological Seminary May 7-8.

The spending plan permanently reduces the General Assembly's two-year mission
budget by $4.6 million, to $114.4 million.

"We've worked very hard with lots of sweat and tears," GAC Executive Director
John Detterick said of the plan. "It's a quality product ... especially
because of the work you've done on the Mission Work Plan."

That plan, adopted by the council in February, establishes four priorities -
evangelism and witness, justice and compassion, spirituality and
discipleship, and leadership and vocation > and 24 specific objectives for
the council's work. Staff leaders said their budget decisions were made in
keeping with those objectives.

In proposing the elimination of the leader-development office in the
Congregational Ministries Division, for instance, Director Don Campbell said:
"Six of the seven leadership objectives addressed ministers, so we had to
look at lay leader development. Perhaps in the next cycle the needs and
objectives will change."

The most hotly debated proposal was the elimination of women's ministries
staff deployed in synods, which eliminated eight positions and saved
$487,000.

Although no motion was made to reverse the cut, GAC member Emily Wigger
raised a number of issues related to the proposal. Wigger, who has been
active in women's ministries in the PC(USA) for more than 40 years, contended
that "the women's staff in the synods has been the most effective means of
communication the church has had."

"When you put (their elimination) beside our expressed desire to improve our
communication, I ask 'What have we learned?'" she said.

Wigger was particularly incensed with a draft plan presented by National
Ministries Division Director Curtis Kearns to separate Presbyterian Women
(PW) and women's ministries in NMD management structure, placing PW within
his office while leaving women's ministries in the justice area. "Since
reunion, we've been very intentional about putting all of our ministries with
women under one umbrella," Wigger said. "This feels like a divide-and-conquer
strategy."

Kearns replied that Presbyterian Women, as an autonomous organization, is a
different kind of entity. He said his desire is to spread the management
responsibility around the division. He said the justice area is already
heavily loaded.

Wigger's motion that PW and women's ministries both be located in the justice
area was defeated, as was her subsequent motion to require that they be
placed together somewhere in NMD's structure. After voting "no" on the
overall budget plan, Wigger said, "I acknowledge the priorities and
objectives, but felt compelled to vote 'no' because of my commitment to women
and to justice."

Kearns said final decisions on the structure of NMD have not been made,
adding, "I hear the concerns about Women's Ministries and Presbyterian Women,
loud and clear."

Detterick told the committee: "Some may read about this vote and interpret it
as a vote against Presbyterian Women and Women's Ministries. I assure you
that is not the case. We will do everything we can to move forward to find
new ways to do those ministries and to support them."

A list of the 28 national staff members who have lost their jobs and their
years of service to the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be published by the
Presbyterian News Service on May 10.

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