NEWS STORY: NCC Pleads for Funding From Presbyterian Church (USA)

c. 2000 Religion News Service LONG BEACH, Calif. _ The National Council of Churches survived a preliminary vote of no-confidence from the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Tuesday (June 27) after dispatching its two top officials to plead with the church not to cut funding for the financially troubled 50-year-old ecumenical agency. The church’s Savannah (Ga.) […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

LONG BEACH, Calif. _ The National Council of Churches survived a preliminary vote of no-confidence from the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Tuesday (June 27) after dispatching its two top officials to plead with the church not to cut funding for the financially troubled 50-year-old ecumenical agency.

The church’s Savannah (Ga.) Presbytery had asked the church to cut its NCC contributions by about $1.4 million a year because the NCC has been wracked by soaring deficits and a bloated bureaucracy. That measure and a similar one expressing “concerns” with the NCC both failed a committee vote.


The proposal now heads to the more than 500 delegates meeting here for the annual General Assembly meeting of the 2.5 million-member church. It is unclear what the larger body will do with the measure.

The proposal also would have cut the church’s $1.17 million contribution to the World Council of Churches, but much of the committee discussion focused on the NCC’s troubled financial past and whether the church can trust the agency to be “good stewards” with its money.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, the NCC’s new general secretary, pleaded with the Catholicity and Ecumenical Relations Committee not to cut funding. Edgar acknowledged the past problems of the NCC _ including a $6.4 million deficit _ but said the agency is on the road to recovery.

Cutting the funding would “send a terrible message” to other NCC member churches, would “cripple” the agency’s budget and would have a “devastating impact” on the NCC’s humanitarian programs cherished by most Presbyterians, Edgar said.

“We’re moving the NCC in some creative new directions, and we need the support of the Presbyterian Church,” Edgar said.

Meeting last month in Washington, the NCC’s executive board formally launched a plan that could result in the dismantling of the NCC by 2003 and the birth of a new organization that could attract the sought-after memberships of Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and evangelicals.

On Monday (June 26), former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, the NCC’s new president, also urged the committee not to cut financial contributions.


“God does not withhold his graces, so we should not withhold the money,” Young said.

Several delegates have expressed serious concerns about the agency’s handling of its finances and the liberal-leaning political causes it supports.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is the second-largest financial contributor to the NCC, behind the United Methodist Church, and last year gave $2.7 million. Presbyterians have also designated $500,000 to help make up the NCC’s $6.4 million budget shortfall.

Edgar came under fire for the NCC’s role in trying to reunite Elian Gonzalez with his father. Pete Allen, a church elder from Northeast Texas, said the NCC repeatedly comes out with “screwy” positions on social policy.

While frustrated with the NCC’s financial and political ills, delegates were hesitant to cut the funding or tie Presbyterian contributions to those of other main contributors. The lion’s share of church donations _ almost 78 percent _ goes toward NCC refugee, hunger and mission programs.

Church officials said it would be impossible for the church to withdraw its funding and try to replicate the relief work done by Church World Service, the NCC’s humanitarian arm.


“From a financial point of view, it’s cheaper to rebuild the NCC than to try and go and do it ourselves,” said John Detterick, executive director of the church’s General Assembly Council, an advisory oversight board.

DEA END ECKSTROM

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