Louisville, USA - Staff cuts are continuing at several agencies of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (USA), further evidence that the global financial crisis also has enveloped churches.
The church's Presbyterian Foundation, headquartered in Jeffersonville, Ind., laid off five employees late last month and seven more took early retirement.
The 2.5 million-member denomination's Louisville-based Office of the General Assembly cut $400,000 from its $14 million budget for 2009 and $800,000 from the 2010 budget.
Other budget changes at the Office of the General Assembly — which has lost approximately $1 million in reserves in the financial meltdown — include a freeze on salaries for 2010 and 2 percent departmental budget cuts.
The denomination's largest agency, the General Assembly Council, last month approved cuts that included 14 layoffs, a week's unpaid furlough and a raise freeze for all employees.
Other mainline Protestant church bodies are reeling financially, as well. The Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said last week it had cut 25 jobs, reduced salaries for executives and senior staff and halted a weekly radio program.
The denomination's World Hunger Appeal fund lost nearly 10 percent of its $20 million annual budget.