wfn.org | Carpenter uplifts family values

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

01-July-1996 
 
GA96031 
 
 
                         Carpenter uplifts family values 
 
 
    Former Moderator Marj Carpenter told Presbyterian Mariners Monday that 
family values need to become a higher priority. 
 
    Carpenter spoke at a sold-out breakfast sponsored by Mariners, a 
10,000-member family ministry organization of the denomination that is 
organized in local congregations. "We've got to get back to family values," 
she said. She engaged the audience with her storytelling, including a 
recounting of her growing up years, when missing church or Sunday school 
just didn't happen. 
 
    Her father told his children that missing either would mean "going to 
hell." "If you missed the car, (he didn't wait very long) you walked the 
two miles. But you went," she said. 
 
    Carpenter said she shared a concern facing Mariners -- a budget cut in 
the Congregational Ministries Division that will eliminate the family and 
single adult ministry staff position at year's end. 
 
    "I'm distressed as you are over anything that closes family values," 
Carpenter said. Carpenter said she had attended only two other Mariner 
gatherings. One of those came this past year as she traveled as moderator. 
It was a reunion at First Presbyterian Church in Miami, Fla. 
 
    "I realized for the first time how close your organization is. People 
had come back from all over the United States. It was like family. 
 
    "I remember that night, I wasn't feeling real good (the only time she 
had a cold during her year) and I was sitting over in the corner watching. 
I was just fascinated. It was like a family reunion--couples that had been 
together when they were young had brought back their children because their 
children had played together. And I realized for the first time what your 
organization is about. I urge you to keep it going and keep trying to 
spread it." 
 
 
Nancy D. Borst 

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