26-April-1999
99168
GAC Executive Committee Allows Women of Faith Award
to the Rev. Jane Spahr to Go Forward
by John Filiatreau
VANDALIA, Ill. - The executive committee of the General Assembly Council
(GAC) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on April 26 to allow the
Rev. Jane A. Spahr to receive a Women of Faith award for 1999.
The committee - 15 voting members and six ex-officio members - also
voted to "establish a task force to review all policies and procedures
regarding the full range of awards currently within the scope of the work
of the General Assembly Council."
By its 9-2 secret-ballot vote, the executive committee reversed the
action of the five-member steering committee of the National Ministries
Division (NMD) Committeeof the GAC, which had reversed the selection of
Spahr by a committee of women representing several groups in the Women's
Ministries Program Area of NMD, which presents the awards.
Spahr, who is openly lesbian, is employed by the Downtown Presbyterian
Church in Rochester, N.Y., as a "lesbian evangelist" for "That All May
Freely Serve," a ministry that reaches out to Christians who are, in her
words, "gay, bisexual and transgendered men and women - people who have
been hurt and violated."
The Rev. Curtis A. Kearns Jr., the NMD director, reportedly asked the
steering committee to review the selection committee's decision because, he
said, "To recognize her would appear to endorse the position for which
she's been advocating" - apparently referring to Spahr's support for the
ordination of unrepentant gays and lesbians to church office.
Kearns said, "The steering committee, after meeting by conference call,
discussed its concerns with the selection committee. When the selection
committee decided to let its selections stand, the steering committee voted
not to accept Spahr's selection.
In its vote, taken during its meeting in Vandalia, Ill. - the hometown
of GAC chair the Rev. Cathy Chisholm - the executive committee also
expressed its view that "National Ministries Division staff acted
appropriately and the steering committee acted decently and in order in
carrying out their responsibilities."
Member Donetta C. Wickstrom urged the panel to include in its statement
an observation "that Curtis Kearns did nothing outside the bounds of his
responsibility and authority." GAC executive director John Detterick said,
"I want to affirm that Curtis did exactly the right thing."
Kearns had been widely criticized after a Presbyterian News Service
story reported that he had rescinded the selection committee's choice of
Spahr. That story was later revised to reflect the subsequent action taken
by the NMD steering committee.
Spahr said she was informed on March 30 or March 31 that she was to
receive the award and then was informed on Good Friday, April 2, that the
Women's Ministries Program Area apparently would not be permitted to
present the award to her. She said there was no mention of the NMD steering
committee during that call.
The steering committee reportedly met by conference call three times -
on April 8, April 11 (when it reportedly voted to reverse the selection
committee's decision to include Spahr among the award recipients), and on
April 18.
In a statement dated April 18 but released only during the executive
committee meeting on April 25, NMD said:
"The decision ... to present one of three Women of Faith Awards to the
Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr has resulted in an evolving controversy. Since
the Women's Ministries Program Area of the National Ministries Division
sponsors the awards, concern about the impact of this award has been raised
with the senior staff of the division and with the Steering Committee of
the National Ministries Division Committee.
"After several lengthy and complex discussions, the National Ministries
Division Steering Committee voted to decline the selection of Dr. Spahr as
a Women of Faith Award recipient. The action was taken because the
committee felt presenting the award to Dr. Spahr would make it appear that
an entity of the General Assembly was endorsing a position that runs
counter to existing General Assembly policy. Entities of the General
Assembly are obligated to uphold the policies of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) and should not be put in the position of appearing to compromise
them in any way. The determination of the Steering Committee was that
presenting this award to Dr. Spahr placed the division in conflict with
that obligation.
"The committee feels this action to be consistent with the spirit of a
moratorium on inflammatory language and actions that evolved from the 210th
General Assembly in Charlotte, North Carolina."
The Women of Faith awards, now in their thirteenth year, are conferred
annually at the Women of Faith Breakfast during the meeting of the General
Assembly.
The recipients for 1999, in addition to Spahr, are Elder Jane Dempsey
Douglas, a retired professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, and the
Rev. Letty Russell, a professor at Yale Divinity School in Connecticut.
The awards' theme for this year is "On Behalf of Women: Reforming
Through the Word." The Women's Ministries Program Area intended to
recognize the three recipients and to more broadly honor "the gifts of
clergywomen, educators, songwriters, poets, campus ministers, theologians,
lay pastors and authors who have witnessed as reformers through the Word."
The members of the selection committee represented five constituencies
within the Women's Ministries Program Area: Presbyterian Women, the
Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns, the National Network of
Presbyterian College Women, the National Association of Presbyterian
Clergywomen and the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators.
The panel chose the three recipients after reviewing more than 80
nomination forms that put forward 59 different women.
The Rev. Barbara E. Dua, associate NMD director for Women's Ministries,
said the committee chose the three recipients unanimously after a process
in which, according to the selection committee members, "the cream rose to
the top."
Dua said this year's selection process was handled no differently than
it has been in previous years. She said the names of prospective award
recipients have never been submitted to division staff for approval.
Chisholm was scheduled to issue a statement on the GAC Executive
Committee's decision on April 27.
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