It seems those same Gays are cheapskates too when it comes to supporting their concept of a church. If it wasn't for funds given in years past by those who would never have approved of the current situation, this Gay Church would have already been almost dead, a branch pruned off from the vine of Christ.
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"Once at the center of the homosexual ordination debate in the Presbyterian Church (USA) ? when it unsuccessfully tried in 1990 to install lesbian activist Janie Spahr as a co-pastor ? Downtown United is in a freefall.
To cover its 2003 expenses of $869,002, it withdrew 9.2 percent of its invested funds (roughly $560,000). The advertisement for a new interim co-pastor did not say whether the drawdown depleted some of its endowment capital, but it did note that the congregation's leaders want to limit future withdrawals from the endowment to no more than 6 percent....
But its members are well below par when it comes to supporting that complex and the work of the church. The advertising profile of the congregation said the 2003 budget included only about $220,000 in pledges and offerings, which is roughly $618 per member. As a whole, members of congregations throughout the PCUSA gave an average of $827.37 in 2002. The average annual giving per member among the 1,315 Confessing Churches within the Presbyterian Churches (USA) is nearly $1,000....
The congregation's advertisement says membership at the end of 2003 was 356. That's a decline of 47.8 percent from its 1992 membership of 681, according to congregational data reported by the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 2003 alone, the congregation removed the names of 49 members from its rolls, an 8 percent drop.
The Rochester congregation has a 500-seat sanctuary, but average worship attendance is only 145 ? 40.7 percent of the membership.
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