wfn.org | Award Winners, Speakers Lined up for GA

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

30-April-1997 
97188 
 
                Award Winners, Speakers Lined up  
                    for General Assembly Fetes 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--A number of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related 
organizations have announced the speakers and award winners who will 
highlight their special events at the upcoming 209th General Assembly 
(1997) in Syracuse, N.Y., June 14-21.  Some of those who have been called 
to the attention of the Presbyterian News Service: 
 
           Churchwide Redevelopment Training Network Lunch 
 
     The group's June 20 lunch will feature an address by Carl Dudley, 
professor of urban ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary and a noted 
authority on the development and redevelopment of congregations. 
 
                         Ecumenical Breakfast 
 
     Sponsored by the ecumenical staff team of the Office of the General 
Assembly and the Worldwide Ministries Division, the June 16 breakfast will 
feature Cecil M. Robeck Jr., a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in 
Pasadena, Calif. 
 
                   Older Adult Ministries Breakfast 
 
     Sponsored by the Older Adult Ministries Office of the Congregational 
Ministries Division, the June 17 breakfast will feature the Rev. Herb Meza. 
 
                          Genevans Breakfast 
 
     The Genevans, a group "committed to the positive reform of process, 
polity and representation in the denomination," will have as guest speaker 
at its June 17 breakfast the Rev. Thomas W. Gillespie, president of 
Princeton Theological Seminary. 
 
                         The Peace Breakfast 
 
     The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship's June 19 breakfast will be 
addressed by Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social 
Responsibility and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.  She will speak on the topic 
"Abolition 2000: Moving toward a Nuclear-Free World for the New Century." 
     The Peace Fellowship's Peaceseeker Award will be presented to Jan Hus 
Presbyterian Church in New York City and its pastor, the Rev. Jan 
Orr-Harter. 
 
                 Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the 
                            Christian Faith Luncheon 
 
     Special speaker for the association's June 19 lunch will be James 
Miller, senior program associate for the Program of Dialogue between 
Science and Religion. 
 
                       Presbyterian Health, Education 
                        and Welfare Association Event 
 
     After dinner June 17, the association will host its annual gathering, 
which will feature a talk on welfare reform by Peter Edelman, professor of 
law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.  He was 
formerly assistant secretary for planning and evaluation of the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services. 
 
                   Presbyterian Mariners Breakfast 
 
     The family ministries organization of the Presbyterian Church will 
have as its speaker June 16 Isabel Rogers, former General Assembly 
moderator and professor of applied Christianity at the Presbyterian School 
of Christian Education in Richmond, Va. 
 
                    Presbyterian Media Mission/Presbyterian 
                      Electronic Media Association Luncheon 
 
     The June 15 joint luncheon of the two groups will feature Kenneth B. 
Bedell, a leading exponent of applying Internet technology to spread the 
gospel.  He is the founding president of the Church Users Network and has 
written many articles and books on computer use. 
 
                      Presbyterian Men's Luncheon 
 
     Sponsored by the men's ministries office of the Congregational 
Ministries Division, the June 19 luncheon will be addressed by Joe Leonard 
of the National Council of Churches on the topic "Love One Another?" 
 
               Presbyterian Peacemaking Program Luncheon 
 
     Sponsored by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program in the 
Congregational Ministries Division, the June 19 luncheon will feature 
remarks by the program's new director, Gary Payton.  
 
                       Presbyterian Writers Guild 
 
     Renowned Presbyerian writer Kathleen Norris, author of the 
best-selling "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography" and "A Cloister Walk," will be 
the Guild's featured speaker at its June 19 luncheon. 
     The Guild's James W. Angell Award will be presented to Bard Young for 
his book "The Snake of God."  The Angell Award is presented annually to the 
Presbyterian author with the best first book. Young is an elder and a 
deacon at First Presbyterian Church in Dixon, Tenn. 
 
                 Presbyterians for Renewal Breakfast 
 
     The group's June 18 breakfast will feature guest speakers the Rev. 
Louis H. Evans and Colleen Evans, renowned speakers, teachers, authors and 
evangelists. 
     The group's Bell-McKay Prize will be awarded to David J. and Mary 
Seel, who served as Presbyterian medical missionaries to Korea from 1952 to 
1990. 
 
                 Presbyterians for Restoring Creation 
 
     Speaker at the Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC) dinner June 
17 will be James A. Nash, executive director of the Churches Center for 
Theology and Public Policy in Washington, D.C.  He is the author of "Loving 
Nature: Ecological Integrity and Christian Responsibility" and many journal 
articles. 
     The PRC Founders Award will be presented to William E. Gibson of 
Ithaca, N.Y., principal writer of the major PC(USA) policy paper "Keeping 
and Healing the Creation" and a consultant to Presbyterian task forces that 
prepared two other seminal church documents on environmental concerns, 
"Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice" and "Hope for a Global Future: 
Toward a Just and Sustainable Human Development." 
 
 
                     Presbyterians Pro-Life Dinner 
 
     Speakers at the June 14 dinner will be the Rev. J. Howard Edington, 
pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Orlando, Fla., and Whitney Goin, a 
church member whose life and that of her son, Andrew, "is a story of faith 
in the midst of adversity and the pastoral role of the church in human 
crises." 
 
                     Small Church Network Breakfast 
 
     Sponsored by the small church network team of the National Ministries 
Division, the June 19 breakfast will feature a panel of church leaders 
addressing the effect of the new commissioned lay pastors amendments on 
small church ministry. 
  
                       Voices of Sophia Breakfast 
 
     The group's June 16 breakfast will feature an address by Mary Ann 
Lundy, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches and former 
director of the Women's Ministry Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
 
                   Witherspoon Society Awards Luncheon 
 
     Speaker for the society's June 15 luncheon is the Rev. David Dyson, 
pastor of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., who will 
also receive the society's Andrews Murray Award. 
 
                          Women of Faith Awards 
 
     Sponsored by the Women's Ministries Program Area of the National 
Ministries Division, the awards will be presented at the Women of Faith 
Awards Breakfast on June 15.  Recipients this year are Jean Kim of Seattle, 
Wash., Sue Montgomery of Grove City, Pa., and Beulah Travis of Syracuse. 
     The award is given to a living Presbyterian woman whose life 
exemplifies faith in God and commitment to the mission of the PC(USA) and 
who is a leader in the denomination and/or ecumenical or international 
arena.  The Women of Faith Awards originated in 1986. 
 
                             Other events 
 
     All of the Presbyterian theological institutions are holding their 
traditional Assembly lunches. Those occur June 18.  And several other 
organizations are hosting events, but without speakers or awards.  They 
include the Presbyterian Outlook Dinner (with brief presentations by the 
moderator candidates), June 14; Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns 
"Celebration of Reconciliation," June 14, evening; Presbyterian AIDS 
Network "A Look at First-Hand Experience with HIV/AIDS" (dramatic 
presentation), June 15, afternoon; Presbyterian Network on Alcohol and 
Other Drug Abuse Luncheon, June 17; Native American Consulting Committee 
Dinner, June 17; National Black Presbyterian Caucus Dinner, June 17; 
PresbyNet Dinner, June 17; Board of Pensions 5K run/walk/wheelchair event, 
June 18, morning; Church Educators reception, June 18, morning; "Year with 
Latin Americans" reception, June 18, evening; Church World Service CROP 
Walk, June 18, evening; Self-Development of People gathering, June 19, 
evening. 

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