wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Families paper

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8254 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04259
June 1, 2004

Families paper

General Assembly backgrounder

by Evan Silverstein

	The reappearance of a proposed policy paper on the changing nature of
families in the United States is expected to be a major item before this
year's 216th General Assembly in Richmond, VA.

	"Transforming Families," developed by the Advisory Committee on
Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), documents the changing structure of family
life, which today includes many single-parent households, homes in which
children are raised by grandparents or other non-parent relatives, and
domestic partnerships other than marriage. It speaks of ways in which various
kinds of families can raise children faithfully and responsibly.

	Critics of the original 43-page report claimed its authors had
refused to make moral distinctions and placed families headed by same-sex
couples on the same plane as those headed by married heterosexual couples -
violating scripture and Christian morality. They prepared a one-page
substitute that defined marriage, as PC(USA) doctrine does, as a union of
"one man and one woman."

	Neither version passed muster at last year's Assembly in Denver, CO,
which bounced both back to ACSWP with instructions to rewrite it, adding
stronger affirmations of the theological value of the traditional two-parent
family. Parts of the document were revised as many as 19 times, and a new
theological section had been added.

	The Rev. Peter Sulyok, the ACSWP coordinator, said he believes the
retooled paper will win broad support at the Assembly and in the PC(USA).

	He said the revised paper is "broad enough to include all the
families in the church, and wide enough to create the space for the church to
reach out, both within its own walls and beyond its walls, into society, to
seek opportunities for ministries with families."

	The original paper was produced in response to a request from the
1997 Assembly that  ACSWP examine "changing families and social structures
that support families," focusing on their impact on children, and suggest
ways "to strengthen the church's ministry to contemporary families."

	"Transforming Families" will be considered by Assembly Committee 10 -
National Issues.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org