As of December 31, Per Member Asking (PMA) contributions received by the Office of the General Assembly since the July 1 start of the EPC’s fiscal year total $1,253,044. The amount is $3,764 more than the $1,249,280 received from July 1 through December 31, 2018.

While PMA contributions are up slightly in Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) compared to FY19, year-to-date contributions are $56,865 (4.3 percent) below the $1,309,909 budgeted projection to support the EPC’s Collaborative Ministries, Connectional Support, and Custodial Operations.

“PMA support is the lifeblood of the EPC as a global movement of Evangelical Presbyterian churches, and I am thankful that so many of our congregations keep PMA in their ministry budget,” said Jeff Jeremiah, EPC Stated Clerk. “Unfortunately, December PMA support was our lowest since 2013. It’s obviously too soon to know if this is the beginning of a trend. We certainly hope not, and perhaps our churches felt the effects of the changes in tax law regarding charitable contributions which in turn could have affected their ability to contribute to PMA in December.”

Of the $1,253,044 received, $250,609 (20 percent) was contributed to EPC World Outreach.

In addition to PMA contributions, $3,261,372 in designated gifts were received in the first six months of the fiscal year. This total was $276,591 (9.3 percent) higher than the $2,984,781 in designated gifts received from July 1 through December 30, 2018. Designated gifts include support for World Outreach global workers and projects, and contributions to EPC Special Projects such as Emergency Relief, church planting and revitalization initiatives, and the EPC’s holiday offerings.

Of the total, $2,615,816 was designated for World Outreach workers and projects, and $645,556 was designated for EPC projects. These amounts only reflect gifts received and distributed by the Office of the General Assembly, and do not reflect donations given directly to WO global workers or other projects.

“We are still rejoicing over the major gifts we received in December, including $250,000 for church planting and $50,000 for one of our World Outreach global workers,” Jeremiah added. “Non-PMA gifts were very strong in the first half of the 2018-2019 fiscal year because of donations to the ‘Welcome Back, Andrew!’ Fund and in response to Hurricane Florence. Yet we are very blessed that designated giving in 2019 has exceeded that.”