wfn.org | ‘Late night' with committees completes commissioners' business

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

Note #6104 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

1-July-2000
GA00153

	‘Late night' with committees completes commissioners' business

	Assembly acts on issues involving chaplains, women's ministries

	by Nancy D. Borst

LONG BEACH, July 1- It was late. Very late. So late in fact that after a few
blank responses, even the voting computer stopped looking for the Ecumenical
Advisory Delegates (EADS) and the Missionary Advisory Delegates (MADS),
missing in business.

	Nonetheless, three Assembly committees completed their previously arrested
reports, narrowly missing the stroke of midnight. One of those was the
Committee on Mission Coordination and Budgets.
	
	Among their unfinished business were three overtures dealing with the
Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel. A tired Assembly
followed the committee's recommendations straight down the line, authorizing
a study of the council's policies and future funding. Until that study can
be completed, the Assembly directed the General Assembly Council and its
National Ministries Division to provide $250,000 in mission funding for
2000-2001. Council representatives had previously told the committee that
funding was sufficient for the time being.  An attempt to re-insert the
original, higher funding amount of more than $400,000 failed.

	Committee member John Kelso, a Vietnam veteran, told commissioners that 95
percent of funding for the Council, which is ecumenical, came from the
federal government.

Sexual Misconduct Policy

	The Assembly declined to make changes to the denomination's Sexual
Misconduct Policy for employees.

	An overture from the Presbytery of Olympia requested that the General
Assembly Council add wording to base the sexual misconduct portion of the
GAC employee handbook in part on the biblical and confessional standards of
the PC(USA). The overture also sought to add to the definition of "sexual
misconduct" the following: "adultery, and any other sexual conduct outside
the bounds of marriage between a man and a woman."  The overture was
disapproved, 408-44.

The Assembly also approved:

	* A commissioners' resolution declaring that denomination employees may be
members of in any Presbyterian groups not part of the official structure of
the church or any ecumenical organization. Further, employees may use
church-provided travel funds to attend any meetings sponsored by such
groups, as long as the employee gets supervisor approval that the meeting is
relevant to his or her work for the church.
 
	* A commissioners' resolution directing GAC to prepare a summary of all
policies and actions related to women adopted by general assemblies in the
PCUS, UPCUSA and PC(USA) since 1970. The resolution further instructed the
PC(USA) to conduct a review of all national entities to evaluate the overall
implementation of these policies affecting women.
 
	* An amended version of a commissioners' resolution that calls for
representatives of Presbyterian Women, the Women's Ministries Program Area
and the National Ministries Division to continue to clarify the relationship
among these groups and to report findings to the 213th General Assembly.

	The Assembly disapproved a commissioners' resolution seeking additional
funds to provide another position in the denomination's Washington Office
and to increase the budget for that office. The vote was 408-73.

	The committee presented several actions to the Assembly for information
only.
Those items included final response to referral of Overture 99-2, concerning
the Women's Ministries Program Area. The committee accepted the GAC study of
the program area, which included mail surveys, interviews with employees,
review of printed publications and other methods. A review of the research
revealed an overall high approval rating. A few criticisms of the program
area also were expressed, including a lack of one central contact office for
women. The GAC's findings overall were an affirmation of the personnel and
programs of the program area.

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