Committee turns back overture to decrease NCC, WCC funding
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 28, 2000
LONG BEACH, Calif. – A proposal to reduce sharply the amount of money the Presbyterian Church (USA) gives to the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches was defeated resoundingly Tuesday by the Committee on Catholicity and Ecumenical Partnership.
The top elected officers of the PCUSA and the NCC argued against the overture. A substitute motion for less draconian reductions was whittled by amendments – most coming from advocates of full funding for the NCC and WCC – to a sliver of possible reductions. In the end, the substitute was ousted in a close vote and commissioners quickly voted to reject the original Savannah Presbytery overture.
The Savannah overture would have reduced PCUSA funding for the NCC and WCC to about 25 percent of the current allocations – now more than $2.5 million for the NCC and more than $1.2 million for the WCC. In both cases, the PCUSA is the leading U.S. contributor to the organizations.
Lobbying for continued high-level support for the two ecumenical organizations were Andrew Young, president of the NCC; Robert Edgar, general secretary of the NCC; Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the PCUSA; General Assembly Moderator Syngman Rhee, who is a former NCC president; and John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council.
They opposed an overture that raised objections to NCC’s mission and financial management. The mission is heavy in political action – including support for returning Elian Gonzalez to Cuba – and the finances have created a crisis. In 1999, the NCC operated with a deficit of $3.9 million and currently has an aggregate deficit of more than $6 million.
Earlier this year, the General Assembly Council, the governing body of the PCUSA between sessions of the General Assembly, and Kirkpatrick’s office authorized a $500,000 contribution to help the NCC out of its financial hole.
Detterick told the Committee on Catholicity and Ecumenical Partnership that the NCC had met conditions required by the General Assembly Council, and that he expected to mail a check to the NCC soon.