I grew up in a small, rural Presbyterian Church in central Minnesota. I attended Sunday School in its basement, sprawled on a raggedy couch for youth group, sang as one of two tenors in the choir, and was both confirmed and (eventually) encouraged to attend seminary by that good congregation. One of things this small, but spunky, church would regularly share with its members was the Presbyterian Mission Yearbook.

A dog-eared copy of the Mission Yearbook sat on our family’s kitchen table next to the salt and pepper. At dinner, my mother would read accounts of Presbyterian mission co-workers to us. These moments shaped my faith. Those entries (often with vivid pictures) wove together a geography lesson; a spiritual story focused on compassion, cooperation and change; and a rich, interconnected ecclesiology.

Every evening, I pictured our rural Minnesota church being connected, through these remarkable individuals, to Christians and sacred projects all over the world.

Today, I write to General Assembly leadership in a state of profound sadness and actual shock as I contemplate the General Assembly’s sweeping cuts to the mission co-workers program.

I have many heartaches around this:

1. The PCUSA appears to be engaging in a major shift without consulting the congregations who (through their per capita and special mission gifts) fund these amazing programs.


2. I serve a Presbyterian congregation closely connected with mission co-workers in the Philippines who are working on clean water projects and anti-human trafficking efforts, with mission co-workers in Madagascar who are working on sustainable agriculture and HIV/AIDS education/prevention, and with mission co-workers at the U.S./Mexico border who have ministered alongside migrant populations in prophetic ways. The proposed cuts threaten long term, cooperative, culturally-sensitive ministries and the vital results they produce.


3. Over the years, our connection to these faithful servants in the Body of Christ has forged common cause between our New York congregation and Presbyterian congregations in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida—weaving the fabric of the connected church in ways that have both surprised and delighted me. In recent years, when members of my own congregation have expressed concern about actions taken by the General Assembly (or statements made by General Assembly figures), wondering why we are part of a body that expresses itself in ways that we sometimes find deeply problematic, I have always, without fail, countered by pointing to our mission co-worker programs. I have said, “Look, friend, we are doing such good work together around the world!” Cutting our mission co-worker programs threatens our shared ties. It undercuts the moral responsibility the faithful seek from the wider church.

In a time when international aid is under dire threat and programs focused on health, hunger, and humanitarian efforts face drastic governmental cuts, our denomination’s actions feel (at best) out of touch.

I am frustrated, but friends, I do not want to wag my finger. I want to make a prayerful appeal. Please embrace the open-armed ecclesiology of the Mission Yearbook. Please remember the hope and encouragement our mission co-workers give to the wider church. Please hit pause on this decision. Give our denomination a chance for more dialogue. This action represents a dramatic and potentially harmful change at a precarious moment in history. And I honestly fear that we are about to cast aside one of the last ties through which the Spirit binds us to each other.

Please, pause these sweeping cuts and listen.

Respectfully,

Rev. Dr. Scott Black Johnston
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
New York, New York