wfn.org | [PCUSAnews] Freda Gardner is recognized

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

Note #6700 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Freda Gardner is recognized
as a “Champion for Children”
14-June-2001
GA01136

Freda Gardner is recognized
as a “Champion for Children”

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, June 14 – Former Moderator Freda Gardner was the recipient
of the “Champion for Children” award, given Thursday afternoon
during the second annual “Embracing the Children” luncheon.

	The award is given annually by the Presbyterian Children’s Home and
Related Ministries Association, whose membership, to date, includes 21
agencies.  The Rev. Douglas Oldenburg, another former moderator, was the
recipient of the first award.

	Describing Gardner as someone who “is a child of God and who cares
for the children of God,” Chuck Mendenhall of Presbyterian
Children’s Homes in Austin, Texas, gave Gardner the surprise award, a
sculpture of two children on a see-saw.

	Also the keynote speaker for the luncheon, Gardner told stories of her year
as moderator of the 211th General Assembly, and about the ministries
Presbyterians are developing with children across this church and the world.
 Gardner described that gift as “assuring each child that he or she is
a person who is greatly loved by God.”

	Citing Jesus’ admonition to welcome the children, Gardner said, 
“We are the ones to issue the invitation.  To welcome the child.  To
heal. Teach.  Motivate. Console. Empower … Those without the voices
required to make a difference.”

	She described discipleship as “a public act of citizenship and
advocacy” and she urged Presbyterians to raise their voices to ensure
that communities elect competent school boards and that teachers’
needs for better pay and working conditions get answered.

	In her year as moderator, Gardner said she witnessed plenty of ministry:

*   an Ohio congregation that buys backpacks and school supplies for
low-income children in a city school and whose pastoral staff gets to know
the kids;

*   families who have taken in much-abused boys from Sudan who have, as
Gardner says, “ known all the horrors life could ever present to
anyone;”

*   children whose art has been displayed church-wide in the program
calendar that marks the “Year of the Child;”

*  and an upstate New York church which released capital funds into the
local community to develop aid for children at-risk.

“All children are at-risk children.  Children are vulnerable in so
many ways.  They
 are not just people in process.  They are people now.  They are human
beings created by God,” said Gardner, who told her audience that
childhood is not solely a time of innocence and light.  “If that is
the case, then why go through the business of baptizing them?

	“But we are to work for them, pray for them, care for them
…”

	Referring to this Assembly’s action to celebrate the “Decade of
the Child,” instead of ending the “Year of the Child,” as
planned, at the week’s end, Gardner proclaimed:  “Dare we stop
it?  Dare we let it go?  Every year has to be a ‘Year of the
Child.’”

	Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Related Ministries was formed in
1999 when executives and officials from Presbyterian children’s homes
gathered to find ways to collaborate.  Its goals include serving as a
national resource to the PC(USA) on children’s issues and to serve as
a faith-based resource for churches, families and children.

	Some of the agencies include the Thornwell Home and School for Children in
Clinton, S.C.; the Goodland Presbyterian Children’s Home in Hugo,
Okla.; the Presbyterian Hospitality House in Fairbanks, Ala.; and
Presbyterian Children’s Services in St. Louis, Mo.

_______________________________________________
pcusaNews mailing list
pcusaNews@pcusa.org

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