wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] New Presbyterian Panel to be chosen

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

Note #8755 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05294
June 4, 2005

New Presbyterian Panel to be chosen
 
PC(USA) researchers will pick 6,000 to participate in quarterly surveys

by Jerry L. Van Marter
  
LOUISVILLE - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Research Services Office has
announced that it will be selecting a new "Presbyterian Panel" over the next
few months.

	The research office randomly selects a new group every three years to
respond to its surveys. The group includes subsets of members, elders,
pastors and "specialized clergy." 
 
	General Assembly agencies and committees rely on the surveys to "keep
in touch with the rank and file of the Presbyterian church," said Jack
Marcum, administrator of the Presbyterian Panel. 
   
	Ministers' names are picked from lists kept in the Office of the
General Assembly. Because that office doesn't have lists of members and
elders, respondents in those categories are chosen indirectly: First,
congregations are selected at random; then, those congregations are asked to
provide the required number of members and elders, Marcum said.

	Eight elders serving on session will be selected from each of 400
congregations, Marcum said, and 500 congregations will be asked to choose
eight elders not on session.

	The 6,000 members, elders, and ministers thus chosen will receive
their first questionnaire in October. It will gather basic information about
the panelists and identify those who are willing to participate. Those who
respond affirmatively will serve on the panel for three years.

	Historically, Marcum said, the members category has the lowest rate
of participation - usually around 55 percent.  At one time ministers had the
highest rate of participation, but elders do now; Marcum said he isn't sure
why that shift has taken place.   

	When the last panel was being constituted in 2002, 65 percent of
clergy and 77 percent of elders agreed to take part. 
 
	The Presbyterian Panel has been in existence since 1973.  Through the
years Presbyterians have answered questions about such topics as ordination,
peacemaking and stewardship. Recent surveys have asked about the funding of
PC(USA) mission, the actions of last year's General Assembly on divestment
from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West
Bank, and disability issues.

	Survey topics planned for the new group include "What We Believe" and
"Spirituality and Health."  

	"I'm especially excited about the beliefs questionnaire," Marcum
said. "In its 32 years of existence, the Panel has never asked a
comprehensive set of belief questions. For the first time, we'll know
scientifically what individual Presbyterians believe about the important
tenets of our faith."	 
Questionnaires will be sent out quarterly over the three-year period, from
February 2006 to November 2008.   

	Marcum said participating in the Panel is a way of helping the
PC(USA). 
"The panel is an opportunity few people have," he said. "Even though we are
sampling several thousand people, that is a small proportion of the entire
church. We hope that every Presbyterian who is invited to be part of the
Panel will prayerfully consider this unique opportunity to serve the church."
   
Marcum encouraged congregations to be willing to go to the trouble of
providing elders' and members' names. "It requires some work, we realize, but
their cooperation is essential," he said. "We can't do our job of 'listening
to Presbyterians' without their help."	

	Names and addresses of panelists, and their individual responses, are
kept confidential. Only statistical compilations of the results are reported.
      
	The findings of each survey are published in a printed summary and
report, both of which are posted online at www.pcusa.org/research/panel.
Results of general interest are often reported in "Go Figure," a column
written by Marcum and other Research Services staff members for Presbyterians
Today magazine.     
The survey results also are used by non-Presbyterian scholars of American
religion, Marcum said.

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