wfn.org | Independent Panel Established to Investigate Child Abuse

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Note #5874 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Allegations
00171
1-May-2000

              Independent Panel Established to Investigate
                        Child Abuse Allegations

        GAC executive committee extends Women's Ministries review,
                gets good news about "Dawn" loss,

                            by John Filiatreau

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The executive committee of the General Assembly Council
agreed during a meeting here last week to create an Independent Panel of
Inquiry (ICI) to look into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of
children by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionaries in Africa between
1945 and 1978.

    The Rev . Marion McClure, director of the Worldwide Ministries Division
(WMD), discussed the church's response to claims from about 20 people
concerning child sexual abuse and physical abuse by the late Rev. William
Pruitt and others in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire, once
Belgian Congo) between 1945 and 1978.

    The action comes one year after Grace Presbytery launched an
investigation into charges by eight women who told of sexual abuse by
Pruitt when they were missionary children in Congo.  Pruitt, who served in
Congo between 1945 and 1978, died last year before the investigation was
completed.  All of the other alleged perpetrators are also deceased.

    McClure said the ICI is being set up to investigate the allegations
against Pruitt and report to the executive committee.  She said the inquiry
is "essentially pastoral in nature, to help the survivors, the well-being
of the larger Christian community, the General Assembly-level offices, and
the integrity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)."

    WMD added in a press release, "The purpose of the ICI is not a
disciplinary action under the PC(USA) Constitution, nor is it to evaluate
or reach conclusions about civil legal liability."

    The five-member panel will include two certified psychotherapists (one
experienced in child-abuse cases, the other in cases of sexual abuse by
church officers), an attorney experienced in dealing with child abuse in a
church setting, an ordained PC(USA) minister, and a lay person, also a
PC(USA) member. The panel's members will be nominated by the survivors'
group and chosen by the executive committee. McClure said members of the
investigative committee will be appointed "as soon as possible.

    The scope of the investigation takes in "physical or sexual abuse
perpetrated against children in the Congo from 1945 to 1978."

    According to the release, "It shall hear and investigate such
allegations of abuse where either 1) the perpetrator was under appointment
by one of PC(USA)'s predecessor denominations or 2) the abused child was in
the Congo with missionary parents under appointment by one of the PC(USA)'s
predecessor denominations."  Pruitt served as a missionary for the former
Presbyterian Church in the United States, which was based in Atlanta until
Presbyterian reunion in 1983.

    The committee, which will work "in strict confidence," is to finish the
probe and issue "written reports" in 18 months. There will be a
"need-to-know" report circulated to a few church entities, and a second,
less detailed report that will be "educational in nature" and intended to
"promote healing, justice and renewal within PC(USA) and the mission
community."

    McClure told the executive committee that, of the approximately 20
people who claim to have been abused, eight are daughters of former mission
workers.

    McClure said she and other PC(USA) officials, including GAC Executive
Director John Detterick, met with the survivors and their families last
October. She said the WMD has provided pastoral counselors to the survivors
and has agreed to pay up to $15,000 per person, upon request, for further
counseling.

    None of the victims has filed a lawsuit against the PC(USA).

                      Women's Ministry Review Extended

    The executive committee also voted to ask a task group to go beyond a
recent "normal" review of the Women's Ministries Program Area (WMPA) to
meet the mandate of the 211th General Assembly. The committee, composed of
three executive committee members - Doska Ross, the Rev. Joanne Hull and
GAC chair-elect Peter Pizor - will review the program area's publications
and programs and report back to the executive committee in June, just
before the start of this year's 212th GA in Long Beach, Calif.

    The executive committee received the task group's summary of the
results of a survey done by the PC(USA) Office of Research Services. That
report concluded that "those who are familiar with the WMPA give high
ratings to the work being done" by the WMPA, and that "those who are less
involved show lower rates of approval."

    The review team's report said the council "sees this as a wonderful
opportunity for the Women's Ministries Program Area to challenge itself to
expand the services offered to all women in the church."

    The 211th GA, responding to criticism of the WMPA, asked the GAC to
speed up its normal review process and to include in it an examination of
"the theological balance of its programming and material."

    Detterick said the survey process, the same used for all GAC program
area reviews, "does not accomplish what we need to do."

    Hull agreed, saying of the Assembly, "I think they intended that we do
more than this survey."

                       "Dawn" Deficit Down

    Joey Bailey, director of Mission Support Services, announced that the
loss from the New Year's youth event, "The Dawn ... An Epiphany" was
slightly smaller than expected. Early estimates of the spiritually
successful but financially disastrous millennial gathering in Indianapolis
- planned for 30,000 participants but attended by only 2,000 - ranged up to
$2 million.

    Bailey said the final "bottom-line" figure is $1.59 million, about
$200,000 less than estimated a few months ago.

    Most of the reduction in the debt came through negotiating penalty fees
due to hotels for canceled lodging. Detterick commended Bailey for his
work, noting that he did some of the negotiating when he was at home
recuperating from surgery. The executive committee responded with applause.

    Bailey started his report with the remark, "We should focus on the
positive comments before focusing on the numbers." He said he had received
numerous letters and phone calls from people who attended "The Dawn," many
describing life-changing experiences at the event and at least one who was
inspired to devote himself to ministry.

    "The Dawn influenced me in so many positive and awesome ways, I don't
know where to begin," one 14-year-old wrote to the organizers of the event.
"... I became a new person: my thoughts, my priorities, my mind and heart
changed to be a person more devoted to God. Ever since the Dawn ... my
prayer life has been lively."

    "Those who were there will never forget where they were when the year
changed to 2000," wrote a father of two college-age children who attended.
"They were in worship and celebration with believers who love Jesus!"

    Another youngster who attended wrote: "I am still on fire. ... I felt
god's arms around me the whole week."

    A New Jersey pastor wrote, "The money spent was the best money ever
spent. ... There is no measure of finance than can describe the love of God
in the RCA Dome December 28-January 1."

                          Chair rips ACSWP

    GAC chair Donette Wickstrom criticized the Advisory Committee on Social
Witness Policy (ACSWP) for producing overlong reports, duplicating the work
of other PC(USA) groups, and expanding the scope of its research without
obtaining General Assembly approval.

    Wickstrom, a retired police officer, was referring principally to
ACSWP's report on police accountability. She said the committee was told to
do a report on "police brutality" in racial-ethnic communities and hate
crimes. The committee expanded its work to the broader topic of
"accountability."

    "To expand your mandate without going back and getting approval is like
being hired to paint the trim on a house, then painting the whole house and
presenting the bill for the whole house," she said.

    The executive committee agreed to have Wickstrom appoint a work team to
discuss her complaints and related concerns with ACSWP.

                       $460,000 Loan Approved

    The committee approved a $460,000 loan to Mary Holmes College in West
Point, Miss., a historically black two-year school whose property is owned
by the PC(USA).

    The college owes $1.3 million to the U.S. Department of Education,
apparently as a result of accounting errors made since 1991. Bailey said
Mary Holmes doesn't have enough income to cover operating expenses, cannot
make payments on the debt, and cannot get a loan through conventional
sources. However, its trustees have negotiated a settlement: If the college
pays half the principal, the Department of Education will forgive the rest,
plus penalties and interest.

    The interest-free loan from the church is to be repaid in six annual
payments, starting in 2002.

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