Note #9156 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06118 Feb. 21, 2006
WCC money woes detailed
by Jerry L. Van Marter Ecumenical News International
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Income and reserves have declined by 30 per cent since its last gathering, the Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was told on Feb. 20 by its finance committee.
The committee said that member churches should be declared "inactive" after three consecutive years of non-payment of membership contributions. At present, member churches are declared inactive after seven years of non-payment.
The Assembly here also was asked to lower its target for membership income from about $7.5 million agreed at the last WCC Assembly in 1998 to about $5 million for the years 2007-2009.
Since 1999, total budgeted income dropped from about $46 million to about $30 million this year, said Anders Gadegaard of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, the finance committee moderator. Over the same period, WCC reserves declined by almost $15 million, or 30 percent. "This is a challenge for us," Gadegaard said.
The number of the council's 340 member churches contributing to the WCC rose from 55 per cent in 1999 to 75 per cent in 2005, but membership contributions remained stable at about $4.8 million.
The increase in the number of contributing churches has been offset by a 4 percent decline in contributions from Germany. German churches supply more than 40 per cent of the WCC's membership contributions, which account for 13 per cent of the WCCs total budget, Gadegaard told delegates.
About two-thirds of the WCC's income is from designated gifts to WCC programs from churches and from what the Geneva-based council calls "specialized ministries," or church-related agencies. Twenty "funding partners" provide 90 percent of that money, and of those 20, five contribute almost 60 per cent.
Gadegaard warned that staffing levels at WCC headquarters in Geneva had exceeded a guideline established in 2001 that staff numbers needed to be kept "at a steady level." He said the number of total staff and long-term consultants has risen from 204 in 2002 to 210 "full-time equivalents." This year, WCC staff costs are set to account for 57 percent of contributions, compared to 40 percent in 1999 and 50 percent in 2002. Gadegaard called the current ratio "relatively high."
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