[posted here 3-2-01]

This report from the General Assembly Council meeting in Louisville was recorded on VoiceLine on Saturday, February 24, by Evan Silverstein of the Presbyterian News Service.

You can view this report on the PCUSA website.

Meeting in plenary today, the council responded to a controversy over a conference speaker's statements that some critics have alleged to be heretical by approving a document that affirms "the Lordship of Jesus Christ and our salvation through Christ," but also defends "the propriety of open dialogue at GAC-sponsored conferences." The controversy developed after the Rev. Dirk Ficca of Chicago, a speaker at last summer's Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference in Orange, Calif., suggested that an omnipotent and merciful God might provide other avenues to salvation for Jews and Muslims and other non-believers in Christ. Twenty-one sessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and one presbytery had called for the GAC to discipline Ficca or disavow the views he expressed. GAC Chair Peter Pizor said before the discussion that the council lacks authority to take judicial action against Ficca or to "make theological statements on behalf of the church."

The Rev. Jeffrey Bridgeman, a 44-year-old evangelical pastor from Solvan, California, was elected chair of GAC on the second ballot today. The Rev. Adelia D. (Dede) Kelso of Pearl River, Louisiana, was elected vice chair, also on a second ballot. They will begin their one-year term after the General Assembly in June. Bridgeman has been pastor of the Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara Presbytery for 11 years. He is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, ordained in 1983. Kelso has been pastor for eight years of the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Pearl River, La., which belongs to the Southern Louisiana Presbytery. She is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, and has advanced degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

In recapping Friday's GAC plenary action, the council approved a proposed mission budget for 2002 of a little more than $136 million, and also approved a new budget process intended to make it more systematic and "transparent" and to insure that input is sought from all PC(USA) entities. The 2002 budget includes $49.8 million for the Worldwide Ministries Division, $30.7 million for National Ministries Division, $22.6 million for Congregational Ministries Division and $6.3 million for Mission Support Services. It will be presented to the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s 213th General Assembly for approval in June.

The council on Friday also approved a recommendation from the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD) that curriculum publishing no longer be expected to be financially self-sustaining. CMD Committee Chair Lynn Shurley said the area has not been self-sufficient "in the past" and cannot realistically be expected to pay its own way in the future. He said CMD officials have been doomed to "a mad scramble at the end of the year to find funds from anywhere" -- what CMD Director Don Campbell calls "budget-reconciliation funds" -- to offset its loss. The curriculum area's loss for 2000 was about $850,000.

Also on Friday, the GAC voted to approve the formation of a new Presbyterian Mortgage Corporation, in effect making it possible for the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program (PILP) to make more funds available for lending to PC(USA) borrowers. The new corporation would raise funds by "selling" future interest revenue from PILP loans to financial institutions in exchange for cash equal to the loan principal. The measure would enable PILP to legally circumvent capital-reserve regulations that otherwise limit the volume of loans it can make available for lending. PILP has outstanding loans approaching $40 million; officials say loan demand in the PC(USA) exceeds $330 million a year.

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