wfn.org | GAC Launches Review of Women's Ministries Programs

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

27-October-1999 
99364 
 
    GAC Launches Review of Women's Ministries Programs 
 
    Regular periodic assessment will include "theological balance" 
 
    by John D. Filiatreau 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The General Assembly Council has begun a review of the 
Women's Ministries program area of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as 
instructed by the 1999 General Assembly. 
 
    The review, to be finished by the end of February 2000, will include an 
assessment of the "theological balance" of the Women's Ministries programs 
and materials. 
 
    Presbyterians who wish to comment may do so in writing to: Women's 
Ministry Review/Research Services, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 
40202. 
 
    The 211th General Assembly ordered the review - part of a regular 
process in which all GAC programs are evaluated on a three-year cycle, but 
moved it ahead in the schedule from its original May 2000 date to February. 
 
    Commissioners Resolution 99-2, adopted by the Assembly, said the probe 
should include "factual information related to concerns and questions 
regarding the advocacy and program activities of the Women's Ministry 
program area ... and the conformance of said advocacy and program 
activities to Scripture and the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.)." 
 
    In a "rationale" filed with the resolution, its authors, a female 
minister from the Presbytery of Heartland and a woman elder from the 
Presbytery of Plains and Peaks, said the factors making the need for the 
review more urgent include: 
 
    The choices of the Rev. Jane Spahr, a self-identified "lesbian 
evangelist," and Elder Letty Russell, a "self-affirming lesbian," to 
receive 1999 "Woman of Faith" awards; 
 
    The failure of the Women's Ministries program area to properly 
supervise the National Network of  Presbyterian College Women to ensure 
that its programs and materials were "in conformity to the theological and 
confessional standards" of the PC(USA); 
 
    The Women's Ministries program area's advocacy of "radical political 
and theological agendas." 
 
    The GAC's department of Research Services is sending questionnaires to 
a random sample of Presbyterians, and in a departure from normal practice, 
will also make a special effort to get input from two specific groups of 
Presbyterian women, Voices of Orthodox Women and Voices of Sophia. (Voices 
of Orthodox Women has been critical of many Women's Ministries programs; 
Voices of Sophia has been largely supportive.) 
 
    Research Services Coordinator Keith M. Wulff said he hopes to obtain 
mailing lists from both groups. He said he is in the process of obtaining 
the lists and doesn't know how many members the groups may have. 
 
    "If I was in those organizations, I would want to comment on this 
program area," he said to explain the unusual targeted polling. "This will 
allow us to get to hear the voices of people who are disaffected." 
 
    Asked whether comparable efforts had been made in connection with the 
routine evaluations of other program areas, he said: "There really aren't 
constituent groups like these around the other programs we evaluate - the 
News Service, for example. The analogy doesn't work with the other groups." 
 
    Wulff said one reason for the separate polling of the two women's 
groups is that it will enable Research Services to "find out exactly what 
the objections by both groups are." He said that research won't be intended 
to "find out how many people are for or against" the Women's Ministries 
programs. 
 
    Wulff said Research Services will also conduct its usual random poll, 
which will probably go to approximately 600 Presbyterians. "You don't need 
a large sample if you're not going to do a lot of analysis by subgroups," 
he explained. 
 
    Wulff will be personally reviewing the Women's Ministries area's 
printed materials and other resources. 

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