Posted on 05/03/2004 10:57:26 PM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
War brings NCC $7 million in anonymous contribution
By John H. Adams
The Layman Online
Thursday, November 20, 2003
The National Council of Churches has gained financially – and dramatically – from its unending opposition to the war in Iraq.
The council picked up more than $7 million from an anonymous donor who supports the council's continuing attacks on the invasion of Iraq and criticism of the efforts of a coalition led by U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to stabilize the country.
Bob Edgar, the general secretary of the NCC, recently told the council's annual assembly that the donor was a deceased woman. Some informed sources believe the donor was the late Joan B. Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc.
With an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion, Mrs. Kroc, who died on Oct. 12, ranked No. 121 on Forbes magazine's latest list of the nation's wealthiest people. She generously supported peace causes. Her gifts established the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame and she left the institute an additional $50 million as a bequest. That was the largest single gift in Notre Dame's history.
In addition, on Nov. 6, National Public Radio announced that Kroc left NPR $200 million, which was the largest gift ever received by NPR.
With an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion, Mrs. Kroc ranked No. 121 on Forbes magazine's latest list of the nation's wealthiest people.
Kroc's bequest has buoyed the ecumenical organization that began sinking in the late 1980s, depleting its long-term reserves from $24 million to $2.5 million through deficit spending, much of it on extravagances. Auditors noted, for example, that the council's staff tended to use limousine services on work assignments.
Before the war money arrived, the council was on the brink of collapse and went to its biggest contributors – including the Presbyterian Church (USA) for bailout grants to forestall bankruptcy. At the encouragement of Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a member of the NCC's executive board, the PCUSA put an extra $500,000 in the till. The PCUSA continues to be one of the NCC's biggest supporters.
Kirkpatrick has been one of the leading figures in the NCC's attack on the war effort. He joined Edgar in an anti-war junket before the war began, including an unsuccessful attempt to meet with President Bush.
Kirkpatrick has also been the denomination's leading advocate for the World Council of Churches, a global ecumenical body that has also strongly criticized the effort in Iraq. As a member of the WCC's Central Committee, Kirkpatrick supported a statement implying that Bush and Blair should be tried for war crimes because of the war effort.
The $7-million gift will likely fuel the NCC's political activism in the 2004 presidential election. To maintain its tax-exempt status, the NCC cannot and does not endorse candidates, but its opposition to Bush and Republicans has been apparent without any formal endorsement.
The NCC said its audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003, showed total income of $12,474,125 and total operating expenditures of $5,664,651. The surplus increased the Council's total assets from $6,309,200 as of June 30, 2002, to $12,651,535 as of June 30, 2003. The $7-million anonymous gift was the difference between what would have been another budget deficit and the surplus.
"The NCC's 'salvage quadrennium' is over," Edgar said in a news release posted on the NCC Web site.
The NCC has been quick to begin spending its new largesse by naming two new associate general secretaries.
The Rev. Dr. Shanta D. Premawardhana has been elected associate general secretary for interfaith relations. Shanta is an Alliance of Baptists pastor who has been a leader of inter-faith groups in Chicago. She succeeds Dr. Jay Rock, an employee of the Presbyterian Church (USA), who had been assigned to the NCC by the PCUSA for 16 years.
Leora E. Landmesser, a United Methodist, was named associate general secretary for administration and finance.
Mrs. Kroc will then beg forgiveness, and will be told she will only get it after she watches the remaining twelve years worth of tapes.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and the board of directors of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, an independent, non-profit organization that is a principal resource for Congress on environmental and energy issues.
endorse a boycott of the Mount Olive Pickle Company, effective as soon after January 1, 2004, as determined by the NCC Executive Board, unless there is substantial movement by then toward better working conditions of the farm workers who pick the cucumbers used in the company s products.
resolution supporting re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada
Mobilization to Overcome Poverty
PCUSA's largesse comes at the expense of 40 job layoffs announced at PCUSA headquarters today:
"This year's cuts are needed to close a projected $4.5 million gap between revenue and expenses in the church's $114 million budget for next year."
why would any church be a member of this organization???
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