News
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has begun a review of programme plans for 2003 to 2005 in order to strengthen the organization and chart a course for the future. At its meeting in Geneva, 26 August to 3 September, the WCC Central Committee heard a call from its Finance Committee for a review of programme plans that would allow for a budgeted operating surplus in 2003.
In a presentation to the Central Committee on Tuesday, 27 August, Dean Anders Gadegaard on behalf of the Finance Committee outlined the current financial challenge faced by the organization, and called for a reduction in spending in order to assure financial sustainability.
Pointing to the absence of general reserves to cover an eventual shortfall in operating budget income, Gadegaard called for a review of organizational programme priorities. This "unhappy situation", he warned, will "unavoidably affect structures". A working group of the Programme Committee is meeting throughout the week and will draft recommendations to be presented to the Central Committee in the Programme Report expected 2 or 3 September.
The WCC had set a budget for 2001 which at the time was considered "courageous but prudent": to spend one-third of general reserves in combination with a planned drawdown on programme reserve funds, as requested from the donor agencies. The 2002 budget, approved in April by representatives of the WCC Executive Committee, is 52.5 million Swiss francs. The current projected shortfall for 2002 is 5.6 million Swiss francs, and efforts will be made to further reduce costs for 2002.
The unanticipated shortfall in income - due to a loss in the investment portfolio and a drop in contribution income - meant that the operating deficit was higher than anticipated; this depleted the organization's general reserves. However, Gadegaard noted that a restructuring of the WCC investment portfolio earlier in the year - to move to more conservative investments - had protected it from the level of losses experienced by other organizations.
In a press briefing on 27 August, Michiel Hardon, director of WCC Income Monitoring and Development, explained that the contribution income shortfall was due in many cases to the financial situation of member churches and other donors who themselves have been affected by investment losses. Central Committee member Rev. Dr Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (USA) confirmed the steep decline in the value of investments of denominations such as his own. Yet, said Kirkpatrick, his denomination's "total contribution to world ecumenism has increased in the past four or five years".
Rev. Anna Karin Hammar of the Church of Sweden said that "In some ways, the WCC is a victim of the success of the ecumenical movement since its founding." This success means that there are more ecumenical organizations and initiatives now than before. Thus, while "there is more money now available than ever before for world ecumenism," there are more claims on that funding. Yet for the Church of Sweden, Hammar affirmed, "the WCC is and will remain the highest ecumenical priority".
Kirkpatrick stated that he is confident that a "new ecumenical financial discipline" will strengthen future work. The WCC is the "premier global ecumenical organization," said Kirkpatrick. "It is indispensable."