For the first time ever, the provisional Book of Reports for this month's General Assembly were posted online (www.presbyterian.ca) during the first week of May, at the same time reports were sent to commissioners, marking a more public approach to the business of the assembly. The reports detail the work of the church's various committees and departments over the last year and include recommendations to be voted on.
Assembly Council met in March to discuss issues it will be taking to General Assembly. Money and funding, long-range planning and native issues stood out on the agenda, as council members discussed and debated the work of the church.
Questions abounded regarding funding for church programs and ministries, camps and pensions, about establishing pay scales for lay staff, reviewing professorial stipends and approving the national budget for 2007. Specifically, the council decided that the finance committee, in consultation with the audit committee, will conduct a review of the 132 internally restricted funds in the church's financial portfolio valued at more than $11 million, to determine if this money can be used elsewhere.
The council will also set aside time at its November meeting to help formulate guidelines for setting priorities that will assist the management team and finance committee in preparing proposals for deferred bequests.
In response to an overture at last year's assembly, the Life and Mission Agency Committee has been doing research to develop pay scales for lay staff. The committee's interim report was brought to the council for comment, and will also be sent to presbyteries, sessions, synods, the colleges, the Committee on Theological Education and lay staff for comment by December, with final recommendations hopefully going to assembly in 2007.
A total of $100,000 was set aside for grants from the 2005 undesignated bequests to help camps upgrade their water and sewer systems, based on a needs assessment. The Life and Mission Agency will administer applications and the distribution of the funds, determining whose needs are the most urgent, and the PCC's overall need for water/sewer development at camps. This will help determine whether to seek to apply to undesignated bequests next year for further help.
Some of the other key issues include:
- The council will report to assembly that ongoing consultation with the Committee on Theological Education (CTE) and the three colleges is taking place and progress is being made. Conflict arose at last year's assembly when executive church staff was granted a substantial pay raise, while professors were reportedly left out of the consultations.
- CTE will bring its own request to assembly this year, in hopes of fostering more open and amicable conversation with the council. CTE is asking that its convener become a voting member of Assembly Council and that one of the heads of colleges sit on the council as a non-voting member.
- The church's website continues to grow in popularity, with the online donation feature garnering increased attention. As of March, about $22,000 had been donated online, with one recent individual donation for $5,000.
- The church's healing and reconciliation program received a boost when the council passed several recommendations for new initiatives that could have far-reaching and long-lasting effects. See May's Record for the full story.
- The Long-Range Planning Committee, after freeing itself of the previous responsibility of setting yearly themes for the church, brought a refreshing outlook on what the church can accomplish, and the challenges and opportunities it will be facing in the years to come. Issues around community, outreach, age, real estate, education, social questions, ethnicity and communication were just some of the topics listed. The council agreed to let the committee review its terms of reference and recommend changes, and instructed it to develop a strategic plan for the denomination.
- Moderator Jean Morris noted that while in Guatemala, she witnessed the coming together of work done by PWS&D, International Ministries and the WMS, as well as interdenominational cooperation with the United Church. "It was wonderful to watch the integration of those parts of our church, coming together in ways that transform lives and communities," she said. "I don't believe that's a fluke. It comes from excellent planning and when we each take the right piece, it comes together wonderfully."
- She also spoke of the diversity of the Presbyterian Church in age, ethnicity, areas of mission, the ways we worship and geography. "I see a need for a national dream; a national vision," said Morris. "Not a program, but ways congregations and ministers can connect and understand themselves as all going in the same direction and contributing to a shared vision in the PCC."
