04454
October 11, 2004

Per capita pay-up again exceeds 98 percent

COGA writes off $243,000 as ‘uncollectible’ for 2003

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE — The 173 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) paid more than 98 percent of their per capita apportionments in 2003, continuing a seven-year trend of bucking repeated calls by some to withhold this per-member contribution as a means of protest. 

      According to figures presented to the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) at its Oct. 6–8 meeting here, the presbyteries paid $13,319,983 out of total apportionments of $13,562,981. COGA voted to close its 2003 books Dec. 31 by writing off approximately $243,000 as “uncollectible.”

      “It will be lower than that,” said Office of the General Assembly (OGA) budget officer Christopher Nicholas. “More will continue to come in through the end of the year.”

      For the last several years COGA has budgeted $350,000 for uncollectible per capita. Protest-driven withholding reached its peak in 1995, when uncollectible per capita reached $349,605.

      The per capita budget funds the following: meetings of the General Assembly and General Assembly Council (GAC), the administrative expenses of the OGA (including the moderator and stated clerk) and the GAC, permanent and special committees of the General Assembly and advisory committees of the GAC, general (not program) grants to ecumenical partners and such agencies as the Presbyterian Historical Society, and the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission.

      One hundred thirty-seven presbyteries paid their full per capita apportionments last year. Of the 36 who did not, nearly a third are in the Synod of the Trinity. Ten of the 16 presbyteries in the synod — Beaver-Butler, Carlisle, Donegal, Lackawanna, Lake Erie, Philadelphia, Redstone, Shenango, Upper Ohio Valley and Washington — did not pay their full apportionment.

      Eight presbyteries in the Synod of South Atlantic, five presbyteries each in the synods of the Northeast and Living Waters, and two presbyteries in the Synod of Mid-Atlantic did not pay their full apportionment. And six synods — Lakes and Prairies, Lincoln Trails, Covenant, Puerto Rico, Southern California and Hawaii, and the Sun — each had one presbytery in arrears.

      Five synods — Alaska-Northwest, Mid-America, Pacific, Rocky Mountains, Southwest — had complete pay-up by their presbyteries.

      The General Assembly’s Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled that per capita contributions are voluntary but has cautioned Presbyterians that payment of per capita, as a shared expense of the church, is a moral obligation.

      Constitutionally presbyteries are responsible for the collection and remitting of per capita funds. Twenty-seven of the 36 presbyteries that did not pay their full apportionment remit only what they receive from their churches.

      Two presbyteries — Central Florida and Foothills — reported that their payments were short due to withholding by their largest congregations. According to the Minutes of the General Assembly the 5,600-member First Presbyterian Church of Orlando paid no per capita in 2003. First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, SC  — with 4,500 members — paid its presbytery and synod per capita apportionments but not its General Assembly share.

      In most cases the uncollectible per capita was a small amount. Only two presbyteries — again Central Florida and Foothills — were in arrears by more than $25,000. Twenty-one of the 36 presbyteries that came up short were less than $5,000 in arrears.           

      General Assembly per capita apportionments and pay-up, 1999-2003