wfn.org | Controversial College Women's Group Will Survive Despite

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Denunciations 
12-January-1999 
99020 
 
    Controversial College Women's Group 
    Will Survive Despite Denunciations 
 
    By Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The beleaguered National Network of Presbyterian College 
Women (NNPCW) will be commended to the next General Assembly for continued 
funding and full-time staffing, despite withering criticism from its 
denominational foes - including a charge by Rev. Parker Williamson, editor 
of "The Presbyterian Layman," that "the last vestige of Marxism . . .  will 
be found clinging to the skirts of this Network." 
 
    The Work Group to Review the NNPCW, which was authorized by the 1998 
Assembly, has not finalized its report, but a clear consensus emerged 
during its Jan. 12 meeting in favor of continuing the General Assembly's 
funding of the network and hiring a full-time staff person to oversee its 
activities. Since its founding in 1992, the NNPCW has been staffed 
primarily by young adult interns. 
 
    The Presbyterian Coalition, Voices of Orthodox Women and "The 
Presbyterian Layman" have charged that the resources of the NNPCW fall 
outside the biblical and constitutional standards of the Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.). In response, the work group has decided to recommend that 
the "foundational materials" of the network be rewritten to conform to 
denominational policies, and that accountability to the denomination - 
through the General Assembly Council's National Ministries Division - be 
tightened. 
 
    The recommendations took shape during work group discussions after a 
full day of hearings on Jan. 11 in which opponents and supporters of the 
NNPCW passionately stated their cases. The work group heard testimony from 
more than two dozen Presbyterians and a dozen denominational groups. 
 
    A full report on the hearings and the work group's deliberations will 
be published in the next issue of NEWS BRIEFS. 

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