wfn.org | Advisory Committee Task Force Completes a Significant Step

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13-November-1996 
 
 
 
96461       Advisory Committee Task Force Completes a 
          Significant Step in Churchwide Study Document 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
NEW YORK--With a significant step completed in the study document of the 
"Building Community Among Strangers" Task Force, the Rev. Peter A. Sulyok, 
Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) coordinator, departed 
here a happier man. 
 
     That's because Sulyok is acutely aware of the December 1 deadline for 
having the document available for the entire church to read -- a mandatory 
procedure in preparing the report for the 211th General Assembly (1999). A 
full day of the task force's Oct. 31-Nov. 3 meeting was devoted to the 
consideration and final drafting of the document. 
 
     Six metropolitan areas -- New York/Newark; Atlanta; Cleveland; San 
Antonio; Tacoma/Seattle; and Oakland/San Francisco -- are the focus of the 
study, whose primary purpose is to strengthen the church's capacity to 
build community in the midst of growing diversity in American society. 
During the estimated three-year-long study, social, racial and economic 
factors will be considered, along with recommendations for solutions and 
suggestions for what the church's role should be. 
 
     Dividing the study into five proposed sessions, task force members 
broke into small groups to work/reflect on the individual sessions, then 
gathered together in plenary to review the small-group work and add final 
touches to the document. 
 
     Then a five-member editorial committee was formed to edit the 
document. The editorial committee members are Sulyok; the Rev. Krista Kiger 
of St. Joseph, Mo., task force chair; Dr. Robert L. Washington of Teaneck, 
N.J.; the Rev. Don Shriver of New York, N.Y.; and Loretta Pain of Seattle. 
      
     "The study document basically serves a two-fold purpose," Sulyok 
explained. "It will help educate the church at large on the task force's 
work to date, plus serve the group's own need to get feedback from the 
local churches to offer directions the task force should take at this 
point."  
 
     The task force will next meet in San Francisco/Oakland April 17-20, 
1997, for initial work on its policy statement. The group will then meet 
Oct. 9-12, 1997, in Seattle/Tacoma to review the policy statement and 
discuss feedback from the study document. 
 
     "The challenge at this point is how do we make this document become 
meaningful to the church and how do we make it accessible," Kiger said. "We 
then become evangelists, encouraging our church and presbytery bodies to 
take a good, hard look at it."  
 
     Meeting at Broadway Presbyterian Church, task force members also 
gathered to share their recent experiences in the development of their 
local groups, experience community building initiatives in the New York 
area and meet with New York Presbytery officials. 

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