At past General Assemblies, items of business about the denomination’s bottom line have been decided on the last day of plenary.
This summer, with money matters having its own Financial Resources Committee (FIN), preliminary budget discussions are being held at the end of the staggered committee meetings, from June 30 to July 2.
The Financial Resources Committee already has plenty to consider, with 12 scheduled items pertaining to topics such as Special Offerings, a report and recommendations from the Jarvie Commonweal Endowment Reconciliation Team, a unified 2023-24 budget presentation from three national church entities ($88,089,588 for 2023 and $90,136,411 for 2024) and the approval of the per capita rate — the annual amount each church member is asked to provide for the shared ecclesial and administrative costs of the PC(USA).
The committee is considering all financial- and budget-related items from entities of the General Assembly, including the Presbyterian Foundation and Presbyterian Investment and Loan.
A report from the Per Capita and Financial Sustainability Committee [FIN-10] is recommending the formation “of a commission to oversee and facilitate the unification of the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) and the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) into a single agency” —an item commented on by the Moving Forward Implementation Special Committee, which has its own report before the Assembly calling for unifying steps [MOV-02].
The shared presentations about per capita and a unified budget will show the Financial Resources Committee existing examples of collaboration and alignment between OGA, PMA and A Corp.
View all the committee’s items here:
https://www.pc-biz.org/#/committee/3000094/business
The committee moderator is Roger Clowes (Presbytery of Carlisle) and vice moderator Felipe Martinez (Presbytery of Ohio Valley). Sue Rutford is committee assistant and Carson Rhyne parliamentarian.
Committee commissioners and delegates will gather inside Louisville’s Presbyterian Center for discussions. Public sessions will be streamed through the GA225 website.