wfn.org | General Assembly Backgrounder: NNPCW

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

9-June-1999 
99219 
 
    General Assembly Backgrounder: 
    The National Network of Presbyterian College Women 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    The 211th General Assembly will be asked to affirm the National Network 
of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) and to increase its funding so that a 
full-time staff person can be hired to oversee the group's work. 
 
    The recommendations are from a task force appointed by General Assembly 
Council chair, the Rev. Cathy Chisholm, after criticism of the NNPCW 
spilled onto the floor of last year's Assembly in Charlotte. 
 
    Focusing on the network's primary resource, a 1993 packet of issues 
papers called "Young Women Speak," conservative critics - led by "The 
Presbyterian Layman" and Voices of Orthodox Women - assailed the network, 
charging that its publications and activities fall outside the biblical and 
constitutional boundaries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Critics of 
the network charged that it advocates premarital sex and lesbianism as 
acceptable Christian behavior. 
 
    Commissioners initially responded to the criticisms by voting to 
withdraw denominational sponsorship and funding of the NNPCW. After an 11th 
hour demonstration by network members and supporters and an appeal from 
vice-moderator the Rev. James Mead, the Assembly reversed itself, approving 
funding for one year and authorizing the task force "to evaluate the 
resources, publications and programs of the NNPCW ... to ensure they are 
consistent with the Scripture and the Constitution of the PC(USA)." 
 
    The seven-member task force formulated its recommendations after 
hearing several hours of testimony from supporters and critics on Jan. 11. 
 
    Early in June, "The Presbyterian Layman" - which videotaped the task 
force's entire two-day meeting in January - sent a heavily-edited 
"highlights" tape to every commissioner to this year's Assembly. 
 
    The task force is recommending continued sponsorship and increased 
funding for a staff person - since its founding in 1992, the NNPCW has been 
staffed primarily by interns - despite its admission that "some network 
materials violated policies of the PC(USA), were inconsistent with our 
confessions and were lacking in biblical and theological foundation." 
 
     Overture 99-42 from Beaver-Butler Presbytery calls for discontinuing 
funding and "other support" of the NNPCW, which numbers about 250 
participants on approximately 80 college and university campuses around the 
country. 
 
    The task force is recommending that "Young Women Speak" - which is out 
of print - not be reproduced, and that new resources be developed "that 
conform to the biblical and confessional standards of the PC(USA)." The 
task force also recommends that a three-person panel - a Reformed 
theologian, a biblical scholar and a curriculum developer - be assigned to 
work with the NNPCW in developing the new materials. 

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