NCC's financial rebound rolls on

The National Council of Churches has improved its financial health by paying off all debts, doubling its net worth and tripling the amount of reserve funding, says its top officer.

According to Bob Edgar, general secretary of the NCC, reserve funds have increased from $2.3 million last year to $9 million as of June 30. In addition, the NCC, an organization with 36 mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches, has "zero debts." "We're in the healthiest position we've been in ten years," Edgar said October 1 in describing the rebound. When Edgar assumed leadership in early 2000, the council was deeply in debt and its endowment had dwindled from $24 million in 1994 to just $3 million.

An audit presented to the NCC's executive board September 29-30 showed an overall net worth of $12.6 million on June 30, up from $6.3 million a year ago. Expenses were down from $7.1 million to $5.6 million over the same period.

The council now has 40 full-time employees, down from a high of 102 in late 1999. The NCC also is largely independent of its humanitarian arm, Church World Service, and in fact has a larger endowment. "The bottom line is it's the cleanest audit the council has had in years," Edgar said. "It takes away all the arguments that the council is going out of business."

Boosting the reserve funds, or endowment, means that the NCC can plan on about $500,000 each year to pad its estimated $6 million annual budget. It also helps cushion the council against unexpected losses in income, or decreased giving from member churches, Edgar said.

Several donations have helped replace lowered giving from the NCC's two largest contributors, the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Both denominations have said they want other churches to pay more so they are not giving more than 50 percent of the NCC's membership dues.

In other business, the council named two new associate general secretaries at its recent board meeting, electing Leora E. Landmesser as the executive for administration and finance, and Shanta D. Premawardhana to head the NCC's interfaith relations. Landmesser is a seasoned financial officer with a wide range of organizations--not only with her own United Methodist Church's global ministries but also for the United Nations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Premawardhana, a Sri Lankan--born Baptist pastor and a leader in interfaith work in Chicago; has been senior pastor of Chicago's Ellis Avenue Church (formerly Cornell Baptist Church) for the past 14 years.

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