wfn.org | Council OKs Review Process for Award Nominees

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

28-September-1999 
99320 
 
    Council OKs Review Process for Award Nominees 
 
    Women of Faith Award to Jane Spahr Prompts More Screening 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Seeking to avert the kind of controversy that 
surrounded this year's "Women of Faith" awards, the General Assembly 
Council (GAC) has established a process for review of proposed recipients 
of nine GAC-sponsored awards. 
 
    The council appointed a work group to devise a review process in June, 
after a selection committee of the Women's Ministry Program Area voted to 
give a "Woman of Faith" award to the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, an avowed 
lesbian and outspoken opponent of the denomination's ban on the ordination 
of non-celibate gays and lesbian Presbyterians to church office. 
 
    The committee's selection of Spahr sparked a furor which resulted in a 
series of votes by GAC-related entities that first revoked and then 
restored the award. During a meeting just before the General Assembly, the 
GAC voted 41-40 to let the award to Spahr go forward, but appointed a task 
group to develop procedures for review of proposed recipients before they 
are announced as award-winners. 
 
    Under the new rubric, the appropriate division steering committee will 
review proposed award recipients "in light of the ongoing commitment of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be reformed and always reforming, according 
to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit, as well as to Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) constitutional standards and policies." 
 
    Appeals could be made to the appropriate division and then to the full 
Council. 
 
    The review procedure applies to nine GAC-sponsored awards. Ten others 
that are traditionally given during the General Assembly were excluded from 
the review process because they are given either by dues-paying membership 
organizations, such as the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare 
Association (PHEWA), by special endowment, such as the Walton Awards for 
new church development, or have been delegated by the GAC to another group, 
such as the Ecumenical Service Awards. 
 
    The awards subject to the new review procedure are the Award for 
Excellence in Theological Education, the Commitment to Peacemaking Award, 
New Church Development Certificates of Charter, the Restorative Justice 
Award, the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee's Corporate 
Achievement Awards, the Washington Office Award to Middle Governing Bodies 
or Staff, the Washington Office Award to a Presbyterian public official or 
advocate, the Women of Faith Awards, and the Higher Education Award. 
 
    The new procedures also require that written policies and procedures 
for each award be developed by appropriate staff, using the guidelines for 
the Restorative Justice Award as a model. 
 
    A larger question, said the Rev. William Chapman of Hillsdale, N.J., 
who chaired the work group that devised the review process, is why the 
church gives awards in the first place. "Honoring individuals in this way 
is theologically questionable," he said. 
 
    "The work group is convinced," its report states, "that we must 
remember that it is the Church of Jesus Christ which is involved in such 
activities." 
 
    In addition to the process for reviewing award recipients, the report 
approved by the Council includes five questions "that need to be pondered 
thoughtfully by the groups awarding and the divisions administering awards": 
 
     * Why is the award being given? 
     * What is the scriptural and constitutional basis for the award? 
     * How much staff time, money and energy is going into the award? 
     * When and where should the award be presented? 
     * Can the award serve as a model and inspiration to others? 

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