wfn.org | PHEWA "Partners in Christ" Award Recipients Recognized

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16-June-1998 
GA98040 
 
    PHEWA "Partners in Christ" Award Recipients Recognized 
 
    by Nancy Rodman 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--The 1998 Partners in Christ award recipients were 
recognized at the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare event Monday 
evening.  Each recipient shared the story of the award-winning ministries. 
    Acknowledging the award for Special Shared Ministry were the Rev. John 
Sonnenday and Mike Orend of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, McLean, Va., and 
the Rev. Jackie Taylor of Garden Memorial Presbyterian Church, Washington, 
D.C.  The two churches have a twelve-year-old relationship, begun according 
to Sonnenday, "to bear witness to the fact that Christ is not divided," 
that includes the adoption in 1990 of a class of disadvantaged sixth 
graders and the promise to see them through school and send them to 
college.  Thirty-one have attended college and others are in productive 
jobs. 
    The Rev. Dave Zuverink, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Associate for 
Health Ministries USA received the David Hancock Award for his involvement 
in the Presbyterian Network for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (PNAODA).  He 
introduced himself with the statement, "I do alcohol and drugs with the 
Presbyterian Church." 
    He spoke of the church's long journey to dealing with the problems of 
alcohol and other drug abuse and noted that compulsive gambling is a 
growing problem and a source of the same kind of shame that alcoholism once 
was.  Gambling is not just about individual stories, he said, but it is 
also a justice issue.  The church has a responsibility and an opportunity 
to face this growing problem. 
    "We are a small mission of a small church in a small village" is Betty 
M. Minemier's description of The Samaritan Program of Danville (N. Y.) 
Presbyterian Church.  The Samaritan Program received the Margaret Fuad 
Award for its mission with alcoholics in need of treatment.  Funded 
entirely outside the church's budget and strictly confidential, the program 
accepts referrals, arranges interviews with counselors, and pays for 
treatment as a loan when applicants are accepted into the program. 
Beneficiaries set their own loan repayment schedules, the only requirement 
being regularity of payment.  The Samaritan Program is financed through 
fund-raising and with support from other churches. 
    "It feels like winning the Oscar for lifetime achievement," said the 
Rev. Dale Walker as she and Lib Lanier accepted the award presented to the 
Presbyterian Church of the Cross of Greensboro, N. C..  Church of the Cross 
has a history of thirty-five years of faithfulness in mission beginning in 
the 1960s when white residents began an exodus from town as public housing 
projects went up. 
    Faced with this crisis, the church looked to its neighborhood to 
determine its mission.  A day-care program has grown to a full-day 
developmental program for young children with developmental, behavioral, 
and speech and language problems.  The congregation makes its facilities 
available at no charge to groups such as AA and Scouts and is involved in 
local community concerns, not avoiding controversial local issues.  "The 
church opens its doors in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and says, 
`Welcome'," said Lanier. 

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