The most important Presbyterian denomination in the USA is contemplating promoting its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, which it has occupied because the Eighties.
The Presbyterian Church (USA), the company board that serves as the company physique of the denomination's normal meeting, is contemplating the way forward for its downtown Louisville headquarters.
The PCUSA, referred to as The Presbyterian Heart, moved into the constructing in August 1988, a number of years after the 1983 merger of the Presbyterian Church within the USA and the United Presbyterian Church within the USA to kind the denomination.
PCUSA Communications Director Rick Jones instructed The Christian Publish, “The Society Committee is starting a dialog in regards to the long-term way forward for the Presbyterian Heart.
“The dialogue began final week on the board assembly,” Jones mentioned, noting that “no determination has been made about what the long run is likely to be” of the Presbyterian middle.
“Nevertheless, altering workforce patterns post-COVID have prompted church leaders to think about how finest to handle the middle and what the perfect technique is likely to be to help present and future providers.”
Like many non secular organizations in the USA, the PCUSA has skilled appreciable decline over the previous few many years and has seen a big decline in membership.
In Could of final yr, the workplace of the PCUSA Common Meeting launched its annual statistical report, which discovered that the denomination had roughly 1.140 million members in 2022.
This represented a pointy decline from the roughly 2.5 million members the denomination reported in 2000, falling beneath 2 million in 2011.
Whereas the PCUSA is contemplating whether or not to promote its headquarters, different declining Protestant denominations have already made plans to promote their major buildings.
In September 2021, the United Church of Christ introduced that it was going to promote its nine-story, 120,000-square-foot nationwide workplace in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Reverend John Dorhauer, then normal minister and president of the UCC, mentioned in an announcement that the transfer was a part of an effort to “rigorously handle our valuable mission sources.”
“This transfer will save Nationwide Setting tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} yearly by leasing one ground as an alternative of sustaining a nine-story constructing that after housed 330 staff,” Dorhauer mentioned.
Final yr, the Christian Reformed Church of North America introduced that the denomination was promoting its headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after residing there for greater than six many years.
The CRCNA Ministry Board voted to place the property up on the market, with Dan DeKam, director of operations for the U.S. ministry, giving thanks in an announcement for the years the denomination has been ready to make use of the property.
“On the similar time, we acknowledge that the constructing's infrastructure is growing old and its ongoing upkeep is turning into financially unsustainable,” DeKam mentioned.
“The pandemic has pressured staff into other ways of working, and whereas the way forward for workplace work just isn’t completely clear, we all know that it have to be versatile – for the well being of staff and the great of the group. new form.”
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