wfn.org | ELCA Council Reduces Churchwide Staff, Budgets for 2009

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Title: ELCA Council Reduces Churchwide Staff, Budgets for 2009
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>April 1, 2009  

ELCA Council Reduces Churchwide Staff, Budgets for 2009
09-076-JB

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Responding to an overall decline in
mission support funds, the Church Council of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) reduced the churchwide
organization's current fund spending authorization for 2009 by
$5.6 million to $76.8 million.  Its action, taken without
comment, resulted in elimination of a number of churchwide staff
positions and vacant positions, and affected churchwide
ministries.

The council also reduced the 2009 World Hunger Appeal
spending authorization by $1.9 million to $18.7 million.

The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and
serves as the legislative authority of the church between
churchwide assemblies.  The council met here March 27-30.
Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 17-23
in Minneapolis.

The reduction was needed because at least 35 of the ELCA's
65 synods revised their mission support plans, resulting in a
collective downward adjustment of $2.4 million for 2009, reported
Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer.  Mission support funds
are provided by congregations to synods, which share a portion of
those funds with the churchwide organization.

Jackson-Skelton said the financial condition of the
churchwide organization is stable.  Contingency planning
continues, she said.

Reporting for the council's budget and finance committee,
Phyllis L. Wallace, committee chair, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,
said all churchwide units reduced their budgets for 2009.  Staff
salaries for unit executives and other senior staff are being
reduced by 3 percent beginning April 1 through the end of the
fiscal year, she said.

Since the council met last November, the churchwide
organization has eliminated 23.5 full-time equivalents --
positions involving churchwide staff -- and another 12 vacant
positions were cut, Wallace said.  Some churchwide staff were
notified in January their jobs were to be eliminated, and more
staff were notified last week.

Churchwide grants to global companion churches, colleges,
universities, seminaries and social service agencies were
reduced, said the Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, executive for
administration, ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop. Only
critical positions in the churchwide organization are being
filled, she said.

Significant reductions occurred in ELCA Communication
Services, ELCA Vocation and Education and ELCA Evangelical
Outreach and Congregational Mission (EOCM).

ELCA Communication Services eliminated Grace Matters, a
radio ministry which has aired each week since 1947.  The action
eliminated three full-time staff and two contract staff. The
program's final broadcast will be Easter, April 12.  The
broadcast aired each week on nearly 180 radio stations in the
United States, several European countries, plus Australia, New
Zealand and Puerto Rico.  Programs could also be heard online,
and will continue to be available on the Web.

ELCA Vocation and Education eliminated its three full-time
deployed campus ministry coordinator positions and an
administrative assistant for campus ministry.  In each of the
ELCA's nine geographic regions, Vocation and Education also has a
coordinator who works primarily with candidates preparing for
ministry. They will now be asked to facilitate some of the work
in campus ministry.

EOCM reductions included funding for new starts, plus
reductions in positions for stewardship and an administrative
assistant for rural ministry. New EOCM directors of evangelical
mission in synods include mission support and stewardship
education in their work.

"Each decision you make to end a ministry is very painful,"
Bullock told the council.  "There is a lot of stress in the
system now."  She praised churchwide leaders and staff for taking
on new responsibilities and keeping the organization stable.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog