With the COVID-19 pandemic undermining the finances of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), denominational leaders are starting to look not only at the short-term impact, but come up with a plan for developing budgets for 2023 and 2024, when the long-term impacts of the pandemic are likely to be felt.
PC(USA) leaders are working now to determine who will serve on a new coordinating table that will have representation from the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the Office of the General Assembly and the PC(USA), A Corporation, and will begin the difficult work of trying to craft a unified budget for all three agencies.
In an administrative action taken the day before the 2020 General Assembly convened last June, the Moving Forward Implementation Commission required that a coordinating table be convened and work be done to develop a unified budget, rather than separate budgets for each entity.
The A Corp board met via Zoom on Oct. 16.
Kathy Lueckert, president of the A Corporation, told the A Corporation board during its online meeting Oct. 16 that she hopes the members of that table will be named in the next few weeks, and that the table can begin meeting in November. The idea behind such an approach is to develop a truly unified budget for 2023 and 2024 — in which all the funding sources available are considered together, and decisions are made on spending for all entities based on shared priorities of what’s most important.
That conversation is likely to involve representatives of the Moving Forward Implementation Special Committee (it’s no longer a commission) and the Presbyterian Foundation, which manages the PC(USA)’s endowment funds, Lueckert said.
But she is warning that the work may prove difficult. “So much of o
Bill Teng serves as co-chair of the A Corporation board, along with Chris Mason
ur funding is restricted that it may not be possible to have as much flexibility in reassigning revenue sources as perhaps folks think there is,” Lueckert told the A Corporation board.
It’s not clear that “this is going to be a slam dunk. There are lots of considerations and lots of restrictions that we need to admit we can’t do anything about, or identify the ones that may have some flexibility, and move forward from there.”
In her report, Lueckert praised the work of Global Language Resources.
The board also heard an update on PC(USA) finances for the first eight months of the year, through Aug. 31 (A.202 Management Report August 31 2020). Among those numbers:
- Contributions from congregations were down more than $1.3 million compared to the same time period in 2019. Overall, total contributions were down more than $5 million.
- Investment returns were down — losing $15.5 million in value in the first eight months of 2002.
While a 20-month spending formula used by the Foundation helps to smooth out short-term fluctuations, some board members expressed concerns that the financial performance of the endowment funds, as outlined in a report from the Foundation (A.205 Presbyterian Foundation), shows longer-term concerns.
Sam Bonner spoke about the investment portfolio performance.
Over the last decade, the financial markets have done fairly well — with returns a little over 9%, said board member Sam Bonner. The problem “is not particularly the market, it’s the performance of our investment portfolio.”
Since the spending formula provides a set percentage of the assets for mission funding – the Foundation pays the Presbyterian Mission Agency 4.25% of a 20-quarter rolling average – the actual amount that formula generates for mission can vary depending on the actual value of the investments, said board member Bridget-Anne Hampden. If the portfolio doesn’t generate enough income in interest and dividends and assets have to be sold to make up the full amount of the 4.25% owed, “we are eroding the base,” Hampden said — which could mean less money available for mission in the future.
The board also heard:
- A report from Diane Moffett, the president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, that the Church of Scotland has expressed interest in learning about the agency’s Matthew 25 initiative.
- Remarks from PC(USA) stated clerk J. Herbert Nelson, describing work the PC(USA) is doing to connect with the Black Lives Matter movement in Louisville, and to consider changes that need to made at the General Assembly, “so the assembly is more relevant to the whole church.”
- A report on work in progress to develop a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan. That will include evaluation of policies; training on specific issues such as micro-aggressions; and, on Dec. 10, a staff development day for employees of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and Administrative Services Group focused on trauma, self-care and healing.
How will success of the program be measured? Board member Joyce Rarumangkay posed this question to Ruth Gardner, manager of human resources — saying she wants the plan to include some way to hold managers accountable for their performance regarding diversity and equity work.
And board member Heidi Bolt asked if training sessions held with the staff could be recorded, so the resources could be shared with mid councils. At the presbytery and synod level, “this is work we all need to be doing,” Bolt said.