This is the third of my articles about the October 20, 2005 meeting of Pittsburgh Presbytery at the Westminster Presbyterian Church.One of the anticipated highlights of this meeting was the adoption of a budget for 2006.
Pittsburgh Presbytery has been going paper-lite, with an attempt to use technology to save on printing and mailing costs. So all the reports to this meeting were turned into compact PDF files that people in the churches could download and print (if they thought they would need a copy of the report).
When the budget was introduced we were told that it was printed on yellow paper. Nobody told me to load yellow paper into my printer before I printed out my copy of the budget. Somebody had yellow paper, and I'm just not in the loop. (Is it because I'm in Tarentum?) I'll just chalk this one up to "Printer error."
The total budget of $3,190,485 is a decrease over the 2005 budget. It includes monies collected to be sent on to the Synod and General Assembly. The decrease reflects a planned and intended shift in the responsibility for supporting mission agencies from the Presbytery to the congregations.
Pastor Jim Mead gave an informative set of figures showing that in aggregate the total amount being given to the mission agencies by Presbyterian entities has gone up while the giving specifically from the Presbytery has gone down. Congregations have indeed been shifting their giving as suggested by the Presbytery. Nevertheless Pastor Mead did note that there are some risks that mission agencies that are less strong in fund-raising may be falling through the cracks in this transition.
The per capita apportionment (the amount raised per member for supporting ecclesiastical costs of the Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly) will go up to $21.26 in 2006.
The budget was adopted without debate.
My other articles about this meeting are: 1 2 3 4
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