wfn.org | [PCUSAnews] Committee approves recommendation proclaiming 'Decade of the Child'

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Note #6590 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

GA01032

Committee approves recommendation proclaiming 'Decade of the Child' 

Panel also approves overtures on reparations/faith-based initiative 

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE, June 11 - For the past year the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has
lifted up issues and concerns pertaining to children by celebrating the
"Year of the Child."

The celebration may continue for the next 10 years if the General Assembly
Committee on National and Social Issues has its way. On Monday, the
committee overwhelmingly approved recommending to the 213th General Assembly
that it extend the denomination's emphasis on children by declaring the
first decade of the 21st century - July 2001 to July 2011- as the "Decade of
the Child."

Under the proposed overture, submitted by the Presbytery of Mission in San
Antonio, Texas, the PC(USA) would call upon its agencies, churches and
members to continue the ministry efforts started on behalf of children
during the past year while "diligently" exploring new ways to strengthen the
lives of children and the families in which they live to ensure the future
of the "church" and "world" through the new millennium.

"The future well-being of our church and nation depends on the healthy
nurture of our children spiritually, physically, emotionally,
intellectually, psychologically and socially," the proposed overture says.

The overture, approved 48-to-1, is in line with past PC(USA) policies
concerning children, for whom the denomination has been a longtime advocate.
The church has called for equitable education, comprehensive health care,
quality childcare, protection from violence and abuse, the eradication of
exploitive labor and U.S. adoption of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child.

The church has also supported welfare programs that benefit children,
including help for families with dependent children and school lunch
programs.
"There is still so much to do to strengthen the well-being of children
inside and outside the church," the overture says.

Justice for other groups was also on the meeting agenda. Committee members
approved a recommendation by the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic
Concerns calling for the 213th General Assembly to direct the General
Assembly Council to create a task force to study the issue of reparations
for groups subjected to vast injustices.

The task force would work in consultation with the Advocacy Committee for
Racial Ethnic Concerns, examining reparations for African Americans, Native
Americans, Alaskan Natives and Asian Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and
others. The recommendation calls for the task force to report its findings
and recommendations regarding how the church can foster dialogue and healing
to the 216th General Assembly in 2004.  Committee members approved
forwarding the overture to the Assembly by a vote of 45-to-4.

"You can't get to justice if there isn't some kind of healing process," said
the Rev. Curtis Jones, a Baltimore pastor and outgoing chair of the Advocacy
Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns.

In other action, the Committee on National and Social Issues:

* Approved recommending to the General Assembly that it disapprove an
overture by the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, which advocates for military
use of the island of Vieques, located 10 miles east of Puerto Rico. Since
1941, the United States Navy has conducted live gunnery and bombing
exercises using targets on a portion of the island. Overture opponents said
during the meeting that the military practices could endanger residents and
property on the island if a mishap occurred.

* Approved recommending to the General Assembly an overture, as amended,
pertaining to the federal government's faith-based initiatives program,
which makes funding available for projects by religious groups. The proposal
commends the recent establishment of the faith-based initiatives program,
its similar predecessor, the  Charitable Choice program, and related
resources for Presbyterians. It directs the Stated Clerk to send the
resources on faith-based initiatives to the White House Office and to
appropriate congregational oversight committees, ecumenical bodies and other
appropriate bodies. The committee commends the Presbytery of Albany in
Watervliet, N.Y., which submitted the overture.

* Approved a recommendation by the denomination's Advocacy Committee for
Racial Ethnic Concerns to create a task force to study (in consultation with
the advocacy committee) the disenfranchisement of people of color in the
United States' electoral system; to consider whether or not the church
should make a policy statement on the matter and to report its findings and
recommendations to the 215th General Assembly in 2003.

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