A request for mutual aid by Shinnecock Nation tribal leaders via the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee and the Native American Consulting Committee fell on welcoming ears Friday among members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board.
Looking ahead to the April 22-23 meeting of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, the board’s Coordinating Committee on Friday also looked back to last month’s deadly violence against members of the Asian American Pacific Islander community in and around Atlanta.
Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation Board had a spirited discussion Friday about plans to reconfigure and remodel the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, ahead of hosting the 225th General Assembly in 2022 — and perhaps assemblies beyond that one as well.
Established this summer by what is now the Moving Forward Special Committee, the Coordinating Table hit a snag Wednesday as members debated what changes the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Mission Agency and Administrative Services Group ought to consider to better serve Presbyterian congregations, their leaders and mid councils.
The Coordinating Table, established just before General Assembly by the then-Moving Forward Implementation Commission (now a special committee), held its initial meeting Monday to learn what’s expected of its work and how that work can best be accomplished.
Over the next eight months or so, the Presbyterian Mission Agency — with input from its many partners — will embark on a three-phase Vision Implementation Plan to, as the PMA’s president and executive director put it during a staff town hall meeting Thursday, discern “what the Holy Spirit is already doing and join God in doing it.”
Using technology that performed flawlessly Monday, three entities approved eight recommendations to send to next month’s online General Assembly concerning the impacts of lower than anticipated giving brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
Just as congregational and mid council giving and budgets are being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, so will the current and near-term income streams of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, Office of the General Assembly and the Administrative Services Group.
With unanimous approval Wednesday by the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, the Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program can now issue lines of credit to, for example, presbyteries for such purposes as maintaining and preparing property for sale.
Proposed budgets for the Presbyterian Mission Agency — about $61.2 million in 2021 and about $62.9 million for 2022 — will allow the agency two more years to continue the Matthew 25 focus and to carry out no small number of other worthy ministries, too.
