Church Groups Select New HQ Cities

Committees of two major Protestant denominations on Friday recommended new headquarters sites: St. Louis for the United Church of Christ and Kansas City, Mo., for the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.

The United Church committee, meeting in Houston, picked St. Louis only hours after the Presbyterian committee, meeting in San Francisco, picked Kansas City.

Both recommendations are subject to approval by denominational conventions in June. The United Church General Synod will meet in Cleveland and the Presbyterian General Assembly in Biloxi, Miss.

The 1.7-million-member United Church has headquarters in New York, and the 3.1-million-member Presbyterian Church has dual headquarters, in Atlanta and New York.

The two Presbyterian Church bases have been maintained since northern and southern Presbyterians united in 1983, and the task of recommending a central site was turned over to a committee.

That panel met until midnight Thursday in San Francisco before announcing its recommendation. Kansas City was chosen over St. Louis and Fort Worth, Tex.

Kansas City represents a “geographical coming together of North, South, East and West,” and its “prudent life style” will save money, the committee said. The headquarters staff includes about 1,000 employes.

The United Church committee chose St. Louis over Cleveland and New York.

The committee was assigned in 1985 to recommend a new headquarters site for the denomination, based in New York after a merger 25 years ago of Congregational Christians and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.

The committee called St. Louis “a progressive city with vision and energy.” St. Louis is centrally located and offers a modest cost of living, and the denomination is expected to grow further south and west, the panel also noted.

The recommendation, subject to approval by the denomination’s executive council before action by the June synod, applies only to offices of top administrative officers but also is strongly recommended to denominational boards and agencies.