Heartland policy ignores per-capita law
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 27, 2003
The Presbytery of Heartland in Kansas City, Mo., has adopted a policy that forbids presbytery approval of loans for church development if a congregation has not paid its full per-capita apportionment.
The policy, an apparent violation of church law and court decisions, was approved by the presbytery in June.
In July, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission – the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (USA) – affirmed a 1992 decision by the same court, ruling that a church “may neither be compelled to pay nor punished for failure to pay any [per-capita] amounts” requested by higher governing bodies.
The July ruling did not deal directly with the issue of denying loan approval for non-paying congregations, but the only “punitive” measure cited in rulings by church courts is that presbyteries may publicly list congregations that pay their per capita and those that don’t.
Furthermore, the General Assembly, the denomination’s national governing body, repeatedly has affirmed that local church sessions have the authority to decide whether or not they will remit per-capita payments to support the work of higher governing bodies – presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly.
Nonetheless, the Presbytery of Heartland, on the recommendation of the presbytery’s council, declared that “no congregation be considered eligible to request assistance from the presbytery in the form of mission support, shared grants or loan guarantees unless that congregation has demonstrated its full participation in the fiscal and ecclesiastical life of the presbytery, including the paying of per capita, the making and meeting of a mission pledge, being current on Board of Pensions dues, the filling of annual statistical reports, and the annual reporting of the pastor’s terms of call.”
The Heartland Presbytery Council, which initiated the compulsory per-capita policy, was asked in August to request that the presbytery rescind it. But the council affirmed the policy despite opposition from some presbytery leaders.
The presbytery’s new policy affects an estimated eight or nine congregations that are withholding per-capita support from the General Assembly, the national governing body of the PCUSA, because of their disagreement with General Assembly actions.
One of congregations is First Presbyterian Church in Paola, Kans., a Confessing Church that has a building program under way to meet expansion needs driven by membership growth. The Paola congregation, which is withholding per-capita support requested for the General Assembly, acquired a construction loan for $1.2 million in a $2.2-million project. But long-term, permanent financing requires that presbytery officials co-sign the loan because the presbytery – not the local congregation – owns the property in trust for the denomination.
Prospective lenders, therefore, are wary of granting loans to congregations that fail to get the constitutionally required approval by their presbyteries.
The 551-member Paola congregation has grown by 42.4 percent and its contributions have increased by 58 percent since 1992. Contributions increased by 11.2 percent from 2001 to 2002.
The presbytery, on the other hand, is facing declining membership and revenue. It has lost more than 10 percent of its membership since 1992 and is projecting mission budget deficits of $10,538 in 2003 and $30,242 in 2004.
The proposed budget for 2004 projects collecting 100 percent of the per-capita apportionments to local congregations to support the presbytery, synod and General Assembly, a total of $636,335. The per-capita rate for the presbytery is $14.92; the synod, $2.81, and the General Assembly, $5.51 – a total of $23.24 for each Presbyterian in the Heartland Presbytery.
The total bill for the Paola congregation is $12,805.24, including $2,851 the congregation’s session has decided to withhold from the General Assembly.