wfn.org | Deadline extended for family-study comment

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

Note #7071 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

27-February-2002
02082

Deadline extended for family-study comment

ACSWP provides more time for feedback on church's evolving policy

by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) has extended the deadline for submitting comments on its church-wide study document, Changing Families, by one month, to June 30.

"The extension makes (more) room for individuals, sessions and other groups ... to send their feedback to the committee," said Belinda M. Curry, associate for policy development and interpretation.

Peter A. Sulyok, the ACSWP coordinator, said the extra month will accommodate people who attend June's General Assembly in Columbus, OH, and want to comment. The accumulated feedback will be received by the committee during its meeting in July. 

Changing Families was mailed in January 2001 to presbyteries, synod executives, stated clerks, seminary libraries and middle governing body resource centers. The presbyteries were asked to see that copies were sent to all congregations. Feedback originally was to have been accepted through June 1.

The 45-page report, developed by an ACSWP Task Force on Changing Families, is intended to stimulate reflection and discussion in the church on issues related to the family, with particular emphasis on those affecting children.  

The 1997 General Assembly asked ACSWP to examine the issue of changing families, "giving particular attention to the effect that contemporary family changes have had on the welfare and nurture of children in society and church."

The committee in turn asked the task force to "address the issues confronting families from Biblical, theological, ethical, historical, sociological and other relevant points of view" and to recommend ways of "strengthening the church's 21st-century ministry and witness to all families."

The committee is to propose a policy on families to the 215th General Assembly in 2003.

"The ACSWP plans to bring the Changing Families policy statement to the General Assembly in a little over a year," Curry said in announcing the deadline extension. "This lengthening of the study period allows others to familiarize themselves with the issues prior to the Assembly's action."

"We especially invite sessions and other groups within congregations, as well as individuals, to explore the issues contained in the study, and to respond with any and all discernment of the spirit," Sulyok said.

Changing Families: A Churchwide Study Document was developed as part of a policy-development process outlined in a report titled Why and How the Church Makes a Social Policy Witness, approved by the 205th GA in 1993. The process calls for broad consultation on issues of concern to the church and society, within the framework of Biblical sources and insights from the Reformed tradition.

Copies of the study document are available for $5 from the Presbyterian Distribution Center (PDS), which can be reached by mail at 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396, or by telephone at (800) 524-2612. Specify PDS order number 68-600-01-001. 

For more information or to request a complimentary copy of Changing Families, please call Curry at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5813, or reach her by email at bcurry@ctr.pcusa.org.
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