Actions taken during the 221st General Assembly (2014) will increase the denomination's per capita rate 5 cents per year for the next two years.
The amount rate per active member will rise from $7.02 to $7.07 for 2015 and $7.12 for 2016. Increases necessary for the remainder of 2014 will be funded by internal adjustments, and will not incur any additional per capita assessment for the current year.
The total budgets will be $12.4 million for 2015 and $12.3 million in 2016.
In other business, on the Assembly's final day, the General Assembly Procedures Committee thanked the Presbytery of Detroit Presbytery Committee on Local Arrangements – who could be recognized by their teal blue smocks – with a skit that delighted the business-weary commissioners.
“Once there were normal unimposing human beings. They would wake up. Read the newspaper. Walk the dog. Then one day everything changed. Fate. Providence. Bequeathing upon their shoulders trendiness: The powers of the smock. “
They thanked COLA for coordinating travel plans. Taping down the cord. Technology assistance. Helping the lost. Other things we weren’t even aware of.
The Committee summed it up: “Thanks for radical hospitality. For working invisibly behind the scene. Thank you bravely wearing the smock. And being trendy. Like no one has been before.”
The committee wrapped its report with a word performance by YAAD Fayette Kaledzi from Presbytery of Newark:
“Detroit you are loved by God. You are more than your cars and your sports. You are filled with the booming laughter of a multitude of people. I see the homeless. The poor asking for more. Detroit I do not see darkness. But only light as I watch your smiling face. You are God’s beloved. “