Lay Committee urges Presbyterians to consider redirecting gifts
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 28, 2003
The Presbyterian Lay Committee has called on individuals and sessions in the Presbyterian Church (USA) to consider prayerfully whether to redirect or restrict their per-capita and mission contributions that would otherwise be used to sustain some of the denomination’s programs or activities that conflict with Biblical teaching and the Reformed faith.
The directors of the Lay Committee, an independent renewal ministry, spelled out their concerns about the direction of the denomination in a statement titled “A Declaration of Conscience.” They wrote the statement during their recent meeting in Philadelphia after a lengthy examination of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and its leadership.
The theme of the statement was faithful stewardship in lieu of unquestioning financial support for some denominational programs and staff.
It expressed concern “over our denomination’s faith and life” and concluded that “spiritual schism exists within the Presbyterian Church (USA) because of a deep and irreconcilable disunion among its members over the person and work of Jesus Christ, the authority of God’s Word written, and God’s call to a holy faith. We are two faiths within one denomination.”
The directors declared that “it is unconscionable to remain passive while some groups train their followers to subvert the [PCUSA] Constitution and denominational officials undermine it by their refusal to require compliance. We believe that any compromise with proponents of a false gospel – no matter how laudable for peace and unity that may engender such initiatives – will further erode our denomination’s integrity and delay the day of decision that will ultimately come.”
It was a historic declaration.
Heretofore, the Lay Committee had never called on individuals and sessions to consider cutting off financial support for the denomination’s institutional work. But they have now concluded: “We no longer believe that either the General Assembly per-capita budget or the unrestricted mission budget of the PCUSA is worthy of support.”
The Presbyterian Church (USA) gets money from four streams: per-capita contributions that are approved by local church sessions; investment income; direct gifts to the denomination by congregations and individuals; and special offerings.
The per-capita budget pays for the operation of the General Assembly, including its meetings and its office in Louisville, and the General Assembly Council and its staff. Every session in the Presbyterian Church (USA) is asked to remit $5.51 per member in local congregations – $1,102 for a 200-member church and $5,510 for a 1,000-member congregation.
The denomination’s Mission Budget, projected at $130.1 million in 2003, pays for a wide range of programs, ranging from a world missions to contributions to a Washington, D.C., lobby and such ecumenical bodies as the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches.
About 70 percent of the denomination’s Mission Program is restricted by donors who require that it be used for specific purposes. In 1991, according to PCUSA financial officer Joey Bailey, only 30 percent of the Mission Program budget was restricted to donor-designated ministries – an indication that many Presbyterians have already decided to redirect their gifts because of a declining confidence that the PCUSA will spend the money appropriately.
There is no requirement that Presbyterians financially support either the per-capita or Mission Budget requests. Presbyterian courts and the General Assembly have repeatedly ruled that all contributions are voluntary and that, in the case of per-capita apportionments, no session can be punished for failure to remit its apportionment.
A number of sessions are already declining to pay their per-capita apportionments, which are collected by presbyteries and forwarded to the PCUSA headquarters in Louisville. Recently, the Office of the General Assembly approved writing off $206,379.40 – owed by 42 presbyteries for the year ended on Dec. 31, 2002 – in uncollected per capita. The 2003 per-capita budget projects that $425,000 will not be collected.