wfn.org | Text from Voiceline Report of Feb 15 GAC Executive Committee

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

Meeting 
15-February-2000 
00074 
 
    Text from the Voiceline Report of the February 15 
    General Assembly Council Executive Committee Meeting 
 
    This is Alexa Smith in Louisville and this is Voiceline.  Actions from 
the General Assembly Council Executive Committee today include sending onto 
the council a press policy that creates what Communications Director Gary 
Luhr calls "safe space" for conference attendees to talk privately about 
their faith; a proposal to create a $1million fund for presbyteries to use 
to pay for creative approaches to evangelism; and a  recommendation that 
$500,000 in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) monies be sent to bail the 
National Council of Churches out of its financial woes, with four 
contingencies placed on the money.  Further, the committee ordered that a 
summary report and final comment on largely positive research done in a 
review of the Women's Ministry Program Area be drafted by a work group that 
will report to the April executive committee in Washington, D.C. 
 
    A policy designed to give more privacy to small groups of 
Presbyterians to discuss what it calls "the sharing of personal issues of 
faith and life" during church conferences and retreats was almost 
unanimously approved by the Executive Committee - despite opposition voiced 
by conservative groups in hearings held before the vote.  The Rev. John 
Silbert of Pittsburgh, Pa., the chair of the News Advisory Committee who 
brought the proposed new guidelines for non-business gatherings to the 
executive committee, said the new recommendation does not impact current 
meeting policy which requires broad access for media. It, Silbert 
said,"guards against conference organizers or leadership ... seeking to 
effect a general or a blanket closure."  What it intends to do, he said, is 
"to preserve the public's right to know while providing small groups [the 
opportunity] to examine issues of faith and life ... without hindrance or 
fear" - alluding to charges of harrassment that women's groups have leveled 
against, particularly, more conservative publications.  In the hearings, 
Sylvia Dooling of Voices of Orthodox Women succinctly summed up the 
concerns of those opposing the new policy, stating that small group leaders 
are in a position to influence "the thinking" of conference attendees and 
ought not be "immune to accountability" by closing those groups to 
observers and press.  The Rev. Parker Williamson, executive editor of The 
Presbyterian Layman, insisted that "secrecy" in any context undermines "the 
spirit of openess" the current policy upholds. The one "no" vote on the 
executive committee came from Peter Pizor of Cody, Wy., chair of the 
Worldwide Ministries Division, who found the language to be "overly broad." 
 
     Because of  a surplus in giving in 1999, a proposal to create a $1 
million fund to be drawn upon by presbyteries to do evangelism will be 
introduced tomorrow to the council's arm for budgeting, Mission Support 
Services, by Executive Director John Detterick, or so Detterick told the 
executive committee this morning. Detterick said he is imagining grants of 
up to $25,000 to fund creative approaches to evangelism - and "make what 
works a model to other churches in the denomination." The proposal will go 
the MSS tomorrow and then onto the full council Friday.  "Presbyteries have 
been very generous in giving ... enabling us to do some things we'd not 
thought possible," Detterick said.  He added that he hopes the Mustard Seed 
Fund, if approved, will be an ongoing resource, since $1million allows only 
for a maximum of 40 grants. 
 
     More controversially, a recommendation that the General Assembly 
Council give $400,000 - part of a surplus found in 1999 shared mission 
dollars - to the National Council of Churches as part of an ecumenical 
effort to bail that financially troubled organization out of its fiscal 
woes was approved by the executive committee this afternoon.  That money 
would be coupled with an additional $100,000 allotted by the Committee on 
the Office of the General Assembly.  Actual dispersal of the funds is 
contingent upon four criteria: that other ecumenical partners pledge the 
other $1.5 million necessary to meet the $2 million recapitalization goal; 
that a balanced budget be approved for 2000, plus a realistic plan to 
rebuild reserves; a plan be approved to solve unfunded liability in the 
NCC's pension and healthcare plans; that all members of the NCC participate 
in the recapitalization process and that excess funds be set aside for 
operating reserves.  Further, the proposal urges the NCC to move toward the 
financial and administrative autonomy of the council itself and its relief 
arm, Church World Service. An accompanying document suggesting ways to 
strengthen the council and PC(USA) participation there, which was drafted 
by Pizor, a non-profit organizational consultant, will be forwarded to the 
council as well. 
 
    A three-person work group was assigned the task of turning raw data 
into a readable report about the work of the Women's Ministry Program Area 
(WMPA) - ending research into that area's programming as part of a regular 
review of its work.  The work group will also draft a formal comment to 
conclude the review, which produced, according to an executive summary, 
largely positive feedback.  Briefly, the research indicated that "a vast 
majority" of  female clergy and presbytery and synod executives report that 
the work of the WMPA "conform to the theological and confessional standards 
of the PC(USA) to a `very great extent' or `a great extent.'" Male clergy 
were found to be less likely to say so.  The research also states that 
those who are less familiar with the offices and programs within the WMPA 
were less likely to indicate that it conforms with church theology. 
"Either end of the theological spectrum felt left out of conferences in the 
WMPA," said Keith Wulff, who directs the denomination's Research Services' 
staff, who conducted the study.  Wulff said that even those who had 
negative comments about the WMPA often felt positive about `Horizons' 
Magazine and Bible Study, which are produced by Presbyterian Women. 
 
    This has been Voiceline.  Thank you for calling. 

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