A comment by Witherspoon Issues Analyst Gene TeSelle    [6-4-06]

The General Assembly Council (GAC), on the basis of recommendations by Executive Director John Detterick, has made drastic staff cuts and reorganized its agencies, citing a serious budget shortfall.

We want first to express our sympathy with and concern for those who are being terminated at various stages of their careers, and for those who remain in positions that will be more demanding and stressful than ever.

Cuts of this magnitude are always disturbing, for they say much about the readiness of the church at large to support its national and international ministries. On closer examination, however, the cuts that have been made are even more disturbing, for they indicate the values that dominate the policy of our church at the national level.

Once again, as at several times in the past, programs that could be labeled "evangelism" were given higher priority than the more numerous programs dealing with peace, justice, the environment, and the stewardship of public life through the Washington Office. Several significant programs were simply terminated. These include Criminal Justice, Environmental Justice, Corporate Witness, and the periodical Church & Society, which is widely respected by people in many denominations.

We must also question the way decisions to terminate positions were made. Too much power rests with the Executive Director of the General Assembly Council. This is the result of a gap in the Book of Order. National-level staff are thus vulnerable to agitation by pressure groups in the church, especially if they gain the ear of GAC members or the Executive Director, or use the power of both the press and the purse to generate suspicion about some programs and promote others.

Two presbyteries have sent overtures that would give national-level staff the same protections that are given the employees of presbyteries and synods (G-9.0705). It is disappointing to learn that the General Assembly Council voted on April 28 to lobby the General Assembly against these overtures and thus to maintain the existing system with all its temptations to arbitrary use of power.