Ecumenical funding remains high after cutting missionaries
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 25, 2003
On the heels of budget cuts in 2002 that eliminated 10 percent of the denomination’s foreign missionaries, the 215th General Assembly will be asked to continue high-level funding for the controversial National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.
The Office of the General Assembly, which is directed by Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, wants the commissioners to approve year 2004 grants of $400,000 for the National Council of Churches and $449,414 for the World Council of Churches.
The money from those grants would come from voluntary contributions of Presbyterians through per-capita payments by their local congregations.
Overall, 2004 funding for ecumenical activities paid through per-capita collections is projected at $1,187,745, a reduction of only 0.6 percent from the 2003 budget and 4.9 percent lower than the ecumenical grants in 2002. The 214th General Assembly cut the 2003 foreign mission budget by 10 percent.
Besides allocations to the national and world mainline ecumenical groups, Kirkpatrick’s office is proposing grants of $232,731 for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, $30,000 for Churches Uniting in Christ and $75,000 for attendance at ecumenical assemblies.
The ecumenical budget of the Office of the General Assembly is only a part of what the PCUSA gives to the ecumenical groups it supports. The General Assembly Council also provides grants, but they have been significantly reduced. The Worldwide Ministries Division has its own ecumenical affairs budget. And the denomination contributes substantial in-kind services to the ecumenical groups that are also paid by the freewill gifts of Presbyterians.
On a per-member basis, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been the largest contributor among mainline U.S. denominations to the National and World councils of churches. In 2001, when the National Council of Churches was facing bankruptcy because of years of overspending and growing opposition to its leftist social agenda, the PCUSA anted up an extra $500,000 as a one-time bailout gift.
Kirkpatrick, whose professional career was as an employee of ecumenical groups before he began working for the PCUSA, has been a prime mover in the national and world councils and the World Alliance, serving several years on their governing bodies.
The primary agenda recently for those three agencies has been to oppose the coalition led by President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that ended the torturous regime of Saddam Hussein.
While the National Council and World Council have received the most media attention for their opposition to the liberation of Iraq, the World Alliance issued one of the strongest condemnations.
“We condemn unreservedly this war of aggression, and we condemn the unilateral and imperial mentality that lies behind it,” the World Alliance said in a statement posted on its Web site. “No nation, however powerful, may act on the world stage simply as it pleases.”
One of the issues raised by the denomination on its Web site was that the war in Iraq could destroy “partner” churches. But the Presbytery News Service reported April 24 that none of the five Iraqi congregations sustained “significant” damage. (The story did not say whether they had any damage at all.)
The story quoted an E-mail message from Victor Makari, coordinator of the Middle East for the Worldwide Ministries Division. “First-hand report indicates that the Presbyterian churches in Baghdad and in Mosul are managing fairly well under the circumstances. The Arab Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church of Baghdad was able to gather for services on Good Friday and on Easter.”
Makari also said that Iraqi television broadcast the Good Friday service at Arab Evangelical Church.