Ufford-Chase’s bid to reconsider divestment resolution is defeated
John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 23, 2006
217th General Assembly
Birmingham, Ala. BIRMINGHAM – After an adjournment-eve midnight express that lasted until 12:30 a.m. Thursday, during which a batch of social and political policies was approved with scant debate, the 534 commissioners of the 217th General Assembly returned from a brief rest to handle a few items and adjourn.
The remnants included 216th General Assembly Moderator Rick-Ufford Chase’s unsuccessful attempt to convince the commissioners to reconsider a resolution on the Middle East because it called on the denomination to restrain from telling other nations not to protect their borders.
That wasn’t the way Ufford-Chase wanted the resolution to read. He said the Presbyterian Church (USA) should not abandon its prophetic right to tell nations what to do.
He was addressing one of the statements in the new General Assembly policy that replaced the 2004 resolution favoring Palestinian interests over Israel’s defense of its borders, including military occupation in some Palestinian areas and a separation barrier that has been credited with significantly reducing terrorists’ suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.
The General Assembly approved the policy, written by its Peacemaking and International Issues Committee. It begins with an apology for the actions of the 216th General Assembly, which adopted a resolution calling for phased selective divestment of denominational holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel. That resolution included no similar sanctions against the Palestinians.
The new statement also defended Israel’s right to construct a barrier to protect its citizens, while the 2004 resolution condemned that barrier.
Ufford-Chase wanted the statement defending Israel’s right to build the wall extracted from the committee reports. But the majority of the assembly seemed to prefer the advice of Noel Anderson of San Joaquin Presbytery, who noted that the committee carefully considered that part of the report and approved the statement almost unanimously, and asked the commissioners to reject Ufford-Chase’s request. They did.
During their final morning in the sweltering city of Birmingham, the commissioners also approved mission budgets for 2007 and 2008 and the General Assembly per-capita rates for those years. The per-capita budgets for the two years were set at $12.7 million in 2007 and $15 million in 2008. The higher 2008 budget represents the costs of the 218th General Assembly, where the number of commissioners will be increased to more than 800.
The 2007 mission budget was set at $97.6 million, representing a continuing sharp decline since the budget was $144 million in 2001. The 2008 budget was set at $96.3 million.
Commissioners approved the per-capita apportionment for 2007 and 2008 at $5.79, seven cents higher than the 2006 rate.
Joey Bailey, deputy director of Mission Support Services for the denomination, said the 2008 per-capita and mission budgets both reflected an estimate that the denomination will lose 85,000 members in 2006, the year that the 2008 budgets are based on.
One commissioner raised a question with his own answer: “We’re projecting an 85,000 loss, yet our [per-capita] budget continues to grow? In the secular world, that’s called bankruptcy.”