wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Panel will investigate abuse allegations

[Deeanna Alford <dalford@CTR.PCUSA.ORG>]

 03278
July 8, 2003

Panel will investigate abuse allegations

Committee will look into past cases from Egypt, Cameroon

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, KY - An independent review committee has been established to
investigate allegations of sexual and physical abuse of children by former
Presbyterian Church (USA) mission personnel in Egypt and Cameroon.

The panel will also be responsible for looking into any other abuse
allegations against PC(USA) employees.

The investigation, an outgrowth of a report detailing sexual and physical
abuse of missionary children in Congo that was filed last September, was
authorized earlier this month by the executive committee of the General
Assembly Council (GAC).

Allegations that had surfaced of further abuses in Cameroon and Egypt were
found to be beyond the scope of the original Independent Committee of
Inquiry (ICI), which recommended further investigation.

The new, three-to-five-member Independent Abuse Review Panel (IARP) will
be in place by Oct. 1, according to the Rev. Pat Hendrix, a Worldwide
Ministries Division (WMD) staff liaison. Hendrix can be reached by phone at
(888) 728-7228, ext. 5207.

Members of the IARP will be appointed by the chair of the GAC; nominations
may be submitted to Hendrix. A majority must be members of the PC(USA), but
child-abuse experts not in the church also are eligible.

The panel's has a budget of $250,000 for 2003. It may hire staff or seek
additional appointments to supplement its expertise. Each IARP member will
be paid a flat fee of $675 per month for an average of 15 hours of work per
month. The panel also will also make grants to pay for counseling for abuse
survivors.

The IARP will exist until Dec. 31, 2009.

The panel, like the ICI, will be independent of the GAC, which is funding
its work. It also will be independent of WMD and of people who are making
allegations.

"The Independent Abuse Review Panel is a mechanism that anybody can use to
bring an allegation against former personnel anywhere," said the Rev.
Marian McClure, the WMD director. She noted that the ICI speculated that
other allegations probably will arise.

Hendrix said several complaints have been filed with her office against
former mission personnel in Egypt and Cameroon.

The IARP will be a fact-finding body authorized to study allegations
against people formerly under appointment by WMD; allegations against
current employees will be addressed under a separate process. When accused
parties are still alive, appropriate information will be handed over to
governing bodies for prosecution.

The prosecuting bodies for ministers would be presbyteries; for elders,
they would be sessions.

Hendrix said survivors who spoke to the ICI were impressed with its
report.

"What they wanted was to be heard, to be acknowledged," she said, adding
that their interest in compensation was "way down the list.

"The GAC authorized the payment of $15,000 to each Congo survivor for
counseling.

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