Stated clerk to seek financial information from clerks of sessions
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 25, 2006
The office of Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has produced a questionnaire asking the clerks of local church sessions to fully disclose their financial assets.
The questionnaire, which was disclosed at a recent meeting of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, comes on the heels of the The Layman’s disclosure of the “privileged and confidential” legal strategies Kirkpatrick’s office provided presbyteries as guidelines to enforce the denomination’s property trust clause and claim on local church assets.
Those documents are aimed at congregations that are considering leaving the denomination and hoping to retain their property and assets.
In an advance copy of the “Clerk’s Annual Questionnaire for Year Ending December 31, 2006,” Kirkpatrick poses 15 questions for the clerks.
The three non-financial questions are whether a congregation 1) invited a racial-ethnic minister to preach at least once during the year, 2) has a committee on social witness, hunger, justice, and/or peacemaking, and 3) provided volunteers to create affordable housing or homeless shelters.
The questionnaire does not ask for any accounting on what the Book of Order lists as the first of the great ends of the church: “the proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of mankind” – an issue of great concern to many in the denomination after a record-setting loss of 48,784 members in 2005 and the denomination’s projection of a loss of 85,000 members this year.
The Layman Online received a copy of the clerk’s questionnaire from James D. Berkley of Presbyterian Action, who covered the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. In a column about the meeting, Berkley said: “At a time when some congregations are weighing property issues and others are wondering about hardball tactics the Office of the General Assembly recommends for use against any churches considering leaving the denomination, it just seems a little worrisome to have the Stated Clerk so very interested in the specifics of congregational assets.”
The financial questions, some of them followed by requests for additional information and tabulations of assets, are:
1. “Does your congregation have loans from any of the following groups or institutions? (Check all that apply and indicate the approximate balance and interest rate on loans from each institution.)” That question was followed by a tabular list of banks or financial institutions, Presbyterian Loan & Investment Program, General Assembly Loan Program, Presbytery of Synod, Other and no loans.
2. “Does your congregation have any plans to expand or renovate your facilities within the next two years? What is the estimated cost of the project? Will this project require a capital campaign?”
3. “Does your congregation have funds invested in any of the following financial instruments? (Check all that apply and indicate the approximate amount invested in each.)” The question was followed by a list with amounts to be included: certificates of deposit, money market accounts, bonds or treasuries, stocks or mutual funds, other, or no funds invested.
4. “Who manages your invested funds? (Check all that apply.)” The choices included: a brokerage/investment firm, the Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation, a bank, self-managed portfolio and other.
5. “Does your session, trustees or investment committee use social responsibility criteria (including information from the PC(USA) Committee on Mission Responsibility through Investment – MRTI) in its investment criteria?”
6. “Does your congregation currently have part of its funds invested in banks or financial institutions that make loans for economic development overseas (e.g., Oikocredit)?”
7. “Does your congregation have a program that encourages members to ‘remember the church’ in their wills?”
8. “In any of the past three years, has your congregation used the Presbyterian Foundation’s wills emphasis resource materials?”
9. “How many new gifts did your congregation receive in 2006 from planned giving (i.e., proceeds from gift annuities, charitable trusts, life insurance, retirement accounts)?”
10. “What was the total value of all new gifts from estates?” 11. “Do you have a program in place to encourage planned giving?”
12. Is your church the beneficiary of a permanent fund held by the Presbyterian Foundation?”