wfn.org | NNPCW Celebrates Its Life in The Church

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20-August-1998 
98268 
               NNPCW Celebrates Its Life in The Church 
                   Through Annual Leadership Event 
 
                            by Julian Shipp 
 
COLUMBIA, Ill.-Undaunted by the turmoil during and following the 210th 
General Assembly (1998), the National Network of Presbyterian College Women 
(NNPCW) jubilantly celebrated its life in the church at its sixth annual 
leadership event, Aug. 12-16. In an exclusive Presbyterian News Service 
interview, Network members and affiliates responded to the Assembly's 
controversial action and discussed their feelings about the organization's 
uncertain future. 
 
    In June, a small but explosive proposal to withdraw funding from NNPCW 
infused high drama into an otherwise quiet General Assembly. Makers of the 
proposal criticized Network study materials, particularly an outdated 
information packet titled "Young Women Speak," for promoting viewpoints on 
sexual issues they considered "contrary to the biblical and constitutional 
standards of our church." 
 
    But Christian love and sisterhood prevailed here as approximately 40 
participants engaged in four days of dialogue, worship and community 
interaction from an educational perspective under the theme "Women and 
Education: Liberating Hearts, Minds and Souls." Meeting at Todhall Retreat 
Center, a ministry of St. George's Episcopal Church located in a St. Louis 
suburb, the young women also interacted in small groups, where they 
outlined personal goals and expectations both during and after the event. 
 
    NNPCW is a network of college women and campus ministry/college 
chaplaincy programs across the United States that examines issues related 
to being a Christian, a woman and a college student, and strives to 
minister to the needs of young women on college and university campuses. 
The Network also works to broaden opportunities for leadership and faith 
development among young Presbyterian women. 
 
    Organized in 1991 and staffed mainly by young adult interns, the NNPCW 
presently serves about 250 students and maintains connections with 80 
colleges and universities. It is budgeted to receive $50,000 from the 
PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division in 1998. 
 
                       NNPCW has its say 
 
    Feelings of frustration and curiosity ruled Shelaine Bird's brain on 
the floor of the Assembly as she heard arguments both pro and con regarding 
the Network by commissioners. Bird, a junior at Presbyterian College in 
Clinton, S.C., and a Network member, said the chaplain of her school 
convinced her to attend the Assembly to learn more about NNPCW and share 
the information with other students upon her return. 
 
    Bird said her profound love for the Presbyterian Church and desire to 
learn more about the Network compelled her to attend the leadership event, 
although she was not quite sure what to expect after the allegations she 
heard in Charlotte. Among other charges, critics described 
the Network as an extremist group of radical feminist theologians, demons, 
man haters and lesbians. 
 
    "I feel totally comfortable with [the Network] now," Bird told the 
Presbyterian News Service. "I feel pretty confident saying the accusations 
I heard were not true. The people were ignorant about  what this 
organization is. If they had come to this convention and heard what I've 
heard, seen what I've seen and felt what I've felt, they wouldn't have said 
it." 
 
    Kristen York Girling of the Synod of The Trinity, NNPCW's General 
Assembly Council liaison, said the Network's information packet "Young 
Women Speak" is the source of much of the controversy. At the Assembly, 
Girling sat in on open hearings that focused on the Network and its related 
overtures. 
 
    She said opponents expressed concern over issues such as homosexuality, 
premarital sex and abortion that are not presented with definitive answers 
in the resource, but rather encourage young women to ask questions and seek 
answers among themselves and through Scripture. The resource was written in 
1992 and revised in 1994. It was scheduled to be updated prior to the 
Assembly, but was not,  primarily because of overloaded Presbyterian Center 
staff. "Holding up ["Young Women Speak"] as this evil piece was, I don't 
think, appropriate," Girling said. 
 
    Emily Meyer, an NNPCW member and a junior at the University of 
Washington, said she is not fearful of the Network's future, despite recent 
negative attention. "I think that God wants this organization," she said. 
"And even if the other people in the PC(USA) don't want the Network and if 
something goes wrong, God still wants this Network and the Network would 
still survive somehow. God moved me into this Network and God uses this 
Network to touch the lives of college women." 
 
    Preparing for the worst-case scenario, however, Leah Hrachovec, a 
Network coordinating committee member and a junior at Grinnell College in 
Iowa, said NNPCW examined future funding issues and possibilities last year 
during a meeting in Louisville. She said staying "closely connected" to the 
Presbyterian Church is a Network priority and that a loss of funding is 
undesirable, since it would result in a lack of connection to the 
denomination and "could make a negative statement, depending on what other 
organization NNPCW affiliated itself with." 
 
    Gusti Newquist of Louisville, NNPCW intern, said she was not aware of 
any significant criticism of the Network within the past year. She 
acknowledged the "Young Women Speak" resource drew criticism when it was 
first published, but added, "These [examples in the resource] aren't 
made-up cases; these are real young women struggling with issues in their 
lives in the context of their faith." Newquist said the resource is 
"challenging" but true to the Network's statement of purpose of examining 
what it means to be a Christian, a woman and a college student from a 
clearly defined, feminist perspective. 
 
    That perspective has enriched Emily Welty, a junior and co-moderator of 
NNPCW at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Welty said the Network leadership 
event gave her a lot of ideas to take back to her campus group so that 
they, too, might empower themselves. "There's been a lot of really good 
issues raised here about how we listen to everyone's voice," she said. "I 
think the Wooster group has a lot of voices, so therefore there's a lot of 
diversity among them. I think this conference will help me to urge the 
group to listen to everyone's voice in a more complete way." 
 
    Echoing those sentiments, Mashadi Matabane, a Network member and a 
senior at Spelman College, said college is a time to "feed the mind" and 
explore diverse issues. A second-year conference participant, Matabane said 
the women in the Network give her faith in the future - particularly for 
the so-called "Generation X," which is often labeled by society as 
shiftless, lazy and socially apathetic. 
 
    "As I look around at [Network gatherings] I feel so good, like I just 
know we're going to do great things," Matabane said. "The future is still 
scary, but as long as I know there is still one Network member out there, 
it's going to get better." 
 
               The Assembly's action regarding the Network 
 
    On the next to the last evening of the General Assembly, commissioners 
voted 306-217 to withdraw sponsorship and funding from NNPCW and invited it 
to fully integrate with the denomination's campus ministry program or to 
organize as a special-interest organization. 
 
    Late the following evening, commissioners considered an alternate 
proposal that would have increased the Network's funding. Again they voted 
not to continue funding the organization. Immediately, 50 or so college 
women and their supporters, some holding candles, surrounded the stage and 
sang a chorus of  "This Little Light of Mine" in what Network members 
described as a "faith witness." They were joined by hundreds of other 
supporters in the Assembly plenary hall. 
 
    Moderator Doug Oldenburg explained that he had given permission ahead 
of time for the brief witness so that the women could "express their pain." 
As most commissioners gathered their papers preparing to adjourn for the 
evening, a few others headed for the microphones to express their concerns. 
 
    "We have done a great disservice to these college women," said the Rev. 
David Bebb Jones, a minister from Chicago Presbytery. Marcia Casais, an 
elder from Newton Presbytery, said she "deeply grieved" the Assembly's 
decision. "Here are young women of the church," she lamented. "We are 
casting them adrift." 
 
    Then Vice Moderator James E. Mead, who had voted initially against 
church sponsorship for NNPCW, made a motion that the Assembly reconsider 
its action. "Here's the thing," he explained. "I don't think we ought to 
just squash whole ministries because we are concerned about portions of 
them." 
 
    In a close vote, the exhausted commissioners agreed to reconsider their 
action the following morning. And Mead came back with a concrete proposal: 
Continue funding for 12 months while a task force reviews the  organization 
and prepares recommendations for next year's Assembly. 
 
    "I believe we are called to be a big-tent church," Mead said. "One that 
holds people in whenever possible." If there are questions about whether a 
group should belong, he added, "we should always err on the side of 
inclusiveness." 
 
    Several commissioners expressed frustration over having to revisit a 
matter they thought had been settled in decisive voting on two successive 
evenings. But in the end, Mead's amiable reframing of the issues prevailed. 
Commissioners approved the motion to refer by a wide margin - 314-183. 
 
    Previously unknown to many, the Network was instantly cast in the 
limelight during the Assembly and became the catalyst of a firestorm of 
criticism from "The Presbyterian Layman," which profiled NNPCW in its 
July/August edition and on its Web site. 

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