Low-priority PCUSA programs avoiding cuts in budget plans
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 12, 2003
In 2000, the Presbyterian Church (USA) began the first of three years of budget cuts that will grow to nearly $10 million annually by 2004. But the denomination plans to spend increasing amounts of money on two of its least popular programs – ecumenical alliances and the Washington Office.
If they were eliminated, or sharply reduced, the PCUSA would not have had to cut its foreign missionary jobs by 10 percent – as it did in 2002 – or resort to a $40-million fundraising drive to shore up the denomination’s sagging evangelism and mission. But the advocates of ecumenical work and the Washington Office have quietly and effectively managed to keep their partisan, and often political, causes out of harm’s way.
As the budgets are shaping up – and, because of revenue uncertainties, they still are moving targets this year and in 2004 – here is what the appropriations for ecumenical work and the Washington Office look like:
Agencies and programs200220032004National Council of Churches grant$421,178$421,178$400,000World Council of Churches grant$440,602$440,602$449,414Church union efforts$63,080$30,000$30,000World Reformed Alliance grant$228,168$228,168$232,731Ecumenical assemblies$125,000$75,000$75,000Ecumenical and agency relationships$659,873$784,710$810,044Ecumenical partnerships$5,456,464$5,456,464$5,456,464Washington Office$620,201$587,389N/A$8,014,566$8,023,511N/A
There are a number of close ties among these agencies, as well as some other low-priority programs, such as the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association and the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. Lining up with the political left flank, they chime in together on issues – anti-war with Iraq, pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, and shareholder resolutions that the PCUSA files against corporations with military contracts.
In some cases, such as abortion, they ignore General Assembly guidelines that call for a balanced view. On abortion, the General Assembly supports two contradictory positions: that abortion and opposition to abortion are both morally valid. But the PCUSA groups consistently argue only for a woman’s right to have an abortion, even in the process of delivering a viable baby (partial-birth abortion.)
According to the denomination’s own polling arm, the Presbyterian Panel, the views of those ecumenical agencies rarely reflect the perspective of Presbyterians in the pews – or in Congress. A study by the Institute on Religion and Democracy has shown that these agencies consistently support the agenda of the left wing of the Democratic Party. But more than 55 percent of the members of the PCUSA and 33 of the 47 (70.2 percent) Presbyterians in the U.S. House and Senate are Republicans.
In some cases, the PCUSA ecumenical and lobbying groups cross-lap in leadership. For instance, Eleanor Giddings Ivory, the director of the Washington office, has served on the executive committee of the National Council of Churches. Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, who’s pre-PCUSA work was with ecumenical agencies, is one of the movers and shakers in the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.
In 2001, Kirkpatrick personally – and successfully – appealed to the PCUSA leaders for an extra $500,000 bailout contribution to the NCC when it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Through Kirkpatrick’s office, the PCUSA provides in-kind services, which are not clearly identified in the budgets, to both ecumenical groups.