Here We Go Again!

So, I’m off to my first meeting of the General Council Executive (GCE) next week. The meeting begins on Friday the 13th, no joke! My workbook has arrived and is packed full of Proposals requiring the action of the GCE, either referred from General Council, or drafted in response to other actions of the GCE and the GC.

Remember that meeting back in August? The 40th meeting of the General Council of The United Church of Canada, affectionately known as "GC40?" Along with the 170 or so Proposals that we looked at, we also received some input on the "State of the Church" and financial projections. One of the things we heard (I hope I have this correct!) was that if we took NO ACTION on any of the Proposals before us, if we simply continued forward the ministry work that was already in place, we would generate a $6.5 million deficit in the next three years...

Then we began "discernment."

As GC40 came to a close, our discernment lead to the identification of "5 Themes to Guide the Church:"

• emerging church (radical transformation, hope in the struggle)
• authentic relations with youth and young adults (camps, campus)
• outreach, social justice, and the care of creation (honouring relationships, peace initiatives, refugees, resisting empire)
• faith formation (empowering congregations)
• becoming a whole people (intercultural engagement, language, anti-discrimination work)

Now, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing missing from this list. Pick your issue, it’s in there somewhere. Any of us who had any kind of priority we wanted to be sure was carried forward can be satisfied that we are included in this list. But the question remains, if we’re going to run out of money trying to continue doing what we’re already doing, what’s going to get cut? If any of the new work approved by GC40 requires new money, what’s going to get cut? OR how do we go about raising more money in order to further the mission to which we feel Called?

A couple of years ago, the GCE used a statement from GC39, "A Call to Purpose" to re-evaluate priorities, re-allocate money and cut mission programming. A great hue and cry arose. I was particularly disappointed with the lack of broad consultation before making a final decision. GC39 Commissioners themselves said that they never understood "A Call to Purpose" as a priority setting tool. Others responded that if the problem was a lack of money for mission, GCE should issue the challenge to raise more money for mission. Late in the year, a pathetic bargain was struck that if an additional $2 million dollars could be raised before year-end, the cherished programs would be saved. It wasn’t and they weren’t.

Now here we go again. Only this time I’m not watching from afar, I’m one of "them." :) And I am very anxious to discover what the mechanism will be that will help us as a church make the necessary choices. Comments?