wfn.org | Social Witness Policy Group Maps Plans for Coming Year

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

24-August-1999 
99278 
 
    Social Witness Policy Group Maps Plans for Coming Year 
 
    Committee Discusses How to Reduce Its Workload 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
BOSTON - Admonitions to lighten its workload collided head-on with a slew 
of new mandates from the most recent General Assembly as the Advisory 
Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) struggled at its post-Assembly 
meeting here to prioritize its work for the coming year. 
 
    After poring over a potential list of more than two dozen potential 
subjects for future social policy resolutions or statements, the committee 
decided to prepare six statements for next year's 212th General Assembly in 
Long Beach, Calif. 
 
    They will be on: 
 
    * Gambling and gaming: mandated by the 1996 General Assembly, the 
resolution will "provide scriptural, theological, historical, economic and 
sociological background to enable thoughtful Presbyterians to answer for 
themselves questions relating to gambling and games of chance as related to 
authentic Christian behavior..." 
 
    * Abortion policy monitoring: the 1998 General Assembly directed ACSWP 
to "assess the current implementation of the General Assembly's policy on 
abortion."  Anti-abortion groups have charged that Assembly entities have 
not included recent Assembly statements - most recently a statement by the 
1996 Assembly that so-called "partial birth abortions" are "a grave moral 
concern" - into the resources on problem pregnancies distributed by the 
church.  A six-member monitoring team has been appointed and will hold its 
first of two scheduled meeting the first week of November. 
 
    * "Vocation and Work" monitoring: when the 1996 General Assembly 
approved "God's Work in Our Hands," a policy statement on Christian notions 
of vocation and work, it directed that a final report on implementation of 
that policy be presented to the 2000 Assembly. 
 
    * Charitable Choice: welfare reform and cutbacks in social services for 
the poor and indigent have placed an increasing burden on churches and 
other charitable organizations to provide the "safety net" that undergirds 
U.S. society.  The paper will examine the implications of these shifts for 
PC(USA) congregations. 
 
    * Police accountability: the 1998 General Assembly instructed ACSWP to 
"study the phenomenon of police brutality in communities of color and in 
relation to hate crimes.  The committee reviewed the first draft of a paper 
written for it by Mary E. Powers of the National Coalition on Police 
Accountability and made several suggestions for revisions before the paper 
comes back to the fall ACSWP meeting. 
 
    * International trade monitoring: the 1996 General Assembly directed 
ACSWP to "monitor the implementation and consequences of the recent 
international agreements and mechanisms for expanding world trade - such as 
NAFTA and GATT - with special concern for the effects of trade on the poor, 
the natural environment, local communities and the distribution of power 
among the actors in economic development."  The committee earlier decided 
to respond to the mandate through a three-year study period built around 
annual topical papers.  The committee reviewed the first of the three 
papers, "The Employment Effects of Free Trade and Globalization," by the 
Rev. Pharis Harvey, a Methodist minister who is executive director of the 
International Labor Rights Fund, and made suggestions for revisions of this 
paper before it, too, comes back to the committee in October. 
 
    The committee also heard a progress report on its next major policy 
statement on the changing nature of families in contemporary society and 
the church's response to it.  The Changing Families Task Force was mandated 
by the 1997 General Assembly and charged to "examine the issues of changing 
families and changing social structures that support families, particularly 
focusing on the effects of these on children."  The policy statement is due 
to be presented to the 2002 Assembly. 
 
    Following ACSWP procedures, a prospectus on the task force's work and 
request for nominations to the task force was sent to presbyteries in 
April.  The 12-member task force has been appointed (see June 25 NEWS 
BRIEFS, #99223, p. 5) and its first meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17-19 in 
Louisville. 
 
    Referrals from the 1999 General Assembly that will have to be put off 
include the monitoring of the PC(USA)'s policies on health care; a policy 
on persons with disabilities; a policy on the seriously mentally ill; a 
study guide to accompany the recently-enacted resolution on immigrants, 
refugees and asylum seekers; a study guide and video to accompany the 
recently-enacted policy statement on "Building Community Among Strangers"; 
a paper on the family farm crisis; a churchwide study on the current status 
of women in the church and society; an examination of the privatization of 
prisons in the U.S.; a resolution on terrorism and hate groups; and further 
work on the church's policies on problem pregnancies and abortion. 
 
    Kathy Lueckert, new deputy executive director of the General Assembly 
Council, to whom ACSWP now reports, sympathized with the committee's work 
overload.  "The Assembly is like a kid in a candy store." 
 
    She also counseled the committee to "learn to say `no' or at least to 
tell future Assemblies, `If you want us to do this, we're going to have to 
stop doing that." 
 
    ACSWP member Jan Sharpless of Sacramento, Calif., said responsibility 
for the overload lies with both the committee and with congregations and 
presbyteries. "Complicated issues require complicated reports and we 
sometimes do it (overwork) to ourselves by trying to cover the whole 
breadth of some of these issues."  On the other hand, she continued, 
"Congregations and presbyteries are sometimes also unaware of a lot of 
stuff we do so they ask for things that are already available." 
 
    Ruy Costa, an ACSWP member from Boston, pleaded for more resources. 
"We are frustrated by our workload," he said, "but we're also frustrated by 
the limitations placed on us by our budget and staffing." 
 
    Fred Davie of New York suggested a more pro-active approach prior to 
General Assembly.  "Vetting overtures with presbyteries before they hit 
General Assembly is a good way to go and vetting them in light of existing 
General Assembly policy is an important educative function," he said. 
"Getting an overture passed is an empowering experience, so people go for 
it regardless of implications," he added.  "We need to ask ourselves, `How 
can we make people feel empowered without repeatedly having to go to 
General Assembly with overtures?'" 

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