Established by the then-Moving Forward Implementation Commission (now a committee) to ensure that the work of three organizations — the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Administrative Services Group — is coordinated, the Coordinating Table has been working in recent months to define its work and to find its voice.
The Moving Forward Implementation Special Committee continues to discuss ways to help three of the denomination’s entities — the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the A Corporation/Administrative Services Group — develop a unified budget to present to the 225th General Assembly next year.
Charged with the job of creating a unified budget for 2023-24 to present to the 225th General Assembly next year, the Coordinating Table heard a proposal for doing just that from Kathy Lueckert, president of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation.
During its third monthly meeting on Thursday, the Coordinating Table divided into three groups to discuss and try to answer four thought-provoking questions designed to clarify what’s important to representatives of the Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation and the boards or committee overseeing each entity.
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.
On one of the final days before commissioners to the 224th General Assembly (2020) will be asked to change it from a commission that can take actions on its own to a committee that makes recommendations, the Moving Forward Implementation Commission on Thursday issued a five-page administrative supplement.
Proposals including shifting the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s funds development, interpretation and education function into the PC(USA)’s Administrative Services Group are among those the Moving Forward Implementation Commission is nearly set to include in its report to the 224th General Assembly, due Feb. 21.
Wrapping up its work more than three hours earlier than expected, members of the Moving Forward Implementation Commission prayed Friday afternoon for traveling mercies and for the remaining work commissioners must do before sending its report in by Feb. 21.
The Moving Forward Implementation Commission worked most of the day Thursday on crafting the recommendations it will make to the 224th General Assembly, set for June 20-27 in Baltimore.
Meeting in Baltimore, the Moving Forward Implementation Commission voted this week to convene the leadership of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, Office of the General Assembly and the A Corporation for what it called “an honest and open examination” of the 2021-22 budget “in order to establish a unified approach and plan for budgeting for the upcoming cycle.”
