wfn.org | [PCUSAnews] "Affinity group's" target of Assembly attention

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

Note #6668 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

"Affinity group's" target of Assembly attention 
13-June-2001
GA01109

"Affinity group's" target of Assembly attention 

by Frank Buhrman

LOUISVILLE, June 13 - The official language refers to them as "affinity
groups," one speaker called them "political groups," and others characterize
them as "pressure groups." The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) on Wednesday passed another effort to shed light on their
operations and finances.
	By a margin of more than 4-to-1, the Assembly voted in favor of a proposal
out of its Procedures Committee to ask such groups to provide summaries of
their operations, theological emphases, budget, staff and donors of more
than $1,000. These would be distributed to General Assembly commissioners
and provided to any task force studying causes of division within the
church.
	The request for donor information had been deleted from the original
commissioner's resolution that the committee rewrote, but a floor amendment
restored it. Another amendment was passed asking that commissioners receive
information on any groups that refuse to comply with the request for
information.
	With no means of requiring compliance, the entire matter depends on the
voluntary response of the groups.
	Opposition to the request for donor information included the concern that
it would be used to intimidate, and the Civil Rights-era effort in
Mississippi to obtain a donor list of NAACP supporters was recalled.
Commissioners, however, were more concerned with knowing as much context as
possible about the groups, which inundate them with information before the
General Assembly meets each summer.
	The entire effort is a follow-up from last year's Assembly action to
request more detailed reports from affinity groups. Those were posted on the
PC(USA) website. However, fewer than half of the groups that were asked for
information complied. The new action requests simpler submissions in hopes
of wider compliance.

Demonstrations

	The vote was closer, but the Assembly also followed the Procedure
Committee's lead in maintaining its ban on peaceful floor demonstrations
enacted last year.
	The committee had debated long before voting against an overture from the
Presbytery of Baltimore to overturn the demonstration ban. Supporters of
demonstrations said that they reflected a democratic tradition and the
working of the Holy Spirit, and that they gave powerless groups an
opportunity to express their dissent.
	However, the sentiment that prevailed held that other opportunities exist
to dissent, that demonstrations are still allowed outside the meeting
building, and that good order is essential to the deliberative process.
	That position carried the day, with 65 percent of the commissioners voting
to maintain the ban.

Advisory Delegates

The General Assembly supported three committee actions affecting advisory
delegates. One calls for guidelines to presbyteries for the selection and
ordination of Youth Advisory Delegates, (YADs). That was something the YADs
themselves had strongly supported, and the Assembly agreed that such
information could help some presbyteries find better processes.
	A second action supported the committee's disapproval of an overture that
would have reported separately the votes of advisories in committees, where
they have full "voice and vote." Supporters called such information helpful,
but those who prevailed noted that the advisories (youth, theological
students, missionaries and ecumenical delegates) are full members of the
committee and should not have their votes separated.
	Finally, the Assembly agreed to a study of the possibility that advisories
(other than the ecumenical delegates, who are not members of the church)
might be given full voting privileges in plenary sessions. That will be a
complicated issue, since many of the advisories do not meet other voting
requirements, but it still received 70 percent support.
	Advisory delegates represent about one-third of all the voting
representatives to the General Assembly. In plenary sessions, they vote
first, to "advise" the commissioners (ordained clergy and elders), who then
cast the official votes.
	In far less contested actions, the Assembly voted to approve six Office of
the General Assembly staff members (Loyda Aja, Kerry Clements, Gradye
Parsons, Mark Tammen, Gary Torrens and Robina Wimbush) as associate stated
clerks and re-elected a seventh (Frederick Heuser).

_______________________________________________
pcusaNews mailing list
pcusaNews@pcusa.org

To unsubscribe, go to this web address:
http://pcusa01.pcusa.org/mailman/listinfo/pcusanews