I have a collection of drafts for posts where I am waiting for the proverbial “other shoe,” but I figured enough shoes had dropped here that I should put out an update.

This is not so much a new story as a developing story, and probably will continue as one for a while yet.  I talked about it last fall, and one of the early casualties in the global Presbyterian family was the Presbyterian Mutual Society of Ireland.

Within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) the first agency I saw make a public statement was the Presbyterian Foundation Group which offered an early retirement program with a retirement date of last Monday, March 23, according to the Presbyterian News Service (PNS) article from February.  I have seen no word yet on how many individuals took advantage of the offer or if the Foundation met its goal for cost reduction.

In the headlines this week was the General Assembly Council (GAC) meeting where they dealt with a shortfall of around $10 million on a $111 million annual budget.  The GAC began working on this a while back and the first move, based upon employee suggestions, was to have a mandatory, unpaid furlough the week of May 17-23, 2009.  This was accompanied by the announcement of salary freezes for the 2010 budget. (GAC Press Release, PNS Article)  Going into the meeting this week the GAC staff had put together a recommendation to cut about $4 million and spend about $6 saved from previous years budgets.  The recommendation was accompanied by the press release, the PNS article, and a video with Linda Valentine, executive director, and Tom Taylor, deputy executive director for mission, of the General Assembly Council.

It appears that the GAC accepted at least the outline of the staff recommendation because after their meeting they announced the approval of a revised 2009 Mission Budget with about $4 million in reduced expenses and the use of about $6 million in “prior year accumulations.”  The Council message, both written and on video, emphasized that the revised budget with the savings was in line with the restructuring of the GAC over the last two years.  The Summary of Budget Revisions gives more detail on the savings and lists events which are canceled and offices consolidated.  The news is not just about elimination of positions and events, but in line with the “Grow Christ’s Church Deep and Wide” initiative new positions will be created in church evangelism and personal evangelism.  One of the more far-reaching changes/cuts will be to the grants supporting new church developments and transformations.  Only the first round of applications will be done in 2009 with no fall applications “as we evaluate a new program design and roll out a new funding structure and methodology by 2010.” There are also across-the-board reductions in travel spending by 15% and postage by 10%.  There are also articles from the Presbyterian News Service and the Presbyterian Outlook covering the budget revisions.

Probably the hardest area is the staff reductions.  As part of the budget revision announcement it was revealed that 14 positions had been eliminated since last October.  In addition, another 14 were eliminated effective Friday, March 27.  The budget revision includes nine vacant positions that were eliminated in the last few months and 19 more eliminated on Friday.  And as I already mentioned, it is not completely elimination, but 12 new positions have been created.  These are all detailed on a list of staffing changes.  Peter Smith, religion reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, in his story on the budget revision also reports that local pastors were on hand at the headquarters to counsel with people in the wake of the layoffs.

Finally, for more thoughts on the GAC and the budget revisions I would encourage you to check out Michael Kruse and his Kruse Kronicle blog.  He is in the unique position of being the vice-moderator of the GAC. (Or GAMC – General Assembly Mission Council as he calls it.  That is the new name now approved by the vote of the presbyteries.)  And while I would suggest his short post from the beginning of the meeting, he mostly links to the GAC material I have mentioned.  He does say you can ask questions of him in the comments to his post, not that he’ll have answers.  And keep watching because once he recovers from the meeting and his half-century birthday (Happy Birthday Michael, from an oldest child who is rolling his eyes (read his post if you want the context for that comment)) he might provide more commentary.  UPDATE:  Michael posted at almost exactly the same time I did and you can now find his reflections online.

So where does this leave the PC(USA)?  The GAC is the largest single arm of the denomination with about 400 employees.  I have already mentioned the Foundation that has revenues primarily on the management fees from the invested funds.  With investments down they clearly take a hit on the fees.  The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) and the Board of Pensions probably have fairly stable, or at least more predictable, revenue streams.  While the GAC depends on more variable mission giving and investment income, the OGA has the revenue stream from churches’ per capita and the Board of Pensions from the employee pension contribution.  The Board of Pensions does pay benefits from investment of the funds, and while it has taken a hit the Board reports this spring that the retirement plan “remains secure.”  The Presbyte
rian Investment and Loan Program (PILP) deals in cash and CD’s so the securities downturn should not affect that, but I have not found information on their non-preforming loans.  Finally, the impact of decreased purchases, if any, from Presbyterian Publishing Corporation is unknown but it is a self-supporting arm of the church and depends on sales alone.

And this is the 2009 budget.  At the September meeting the GAC will have to project ahead to 2010.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE:  With the few extra days there has been more reflection and comments on the meeting.  The ones that I have seen include:
GA Vice Moderator Byron Wade
GA Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow
GAC Member Melissa DeRosia (h/t BRC)
I am expecting a few more as well.

In addition, there is a Presbyterian Outlook article on the OGA budget situation which will require about $400,000 in cuts for 2009 because of the decrease in investment income.

And the Louisville Courier-Journal has an article about a worship service recognizing all of those laid off.