wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] GA Moderator announces names for special committee to study civil union and Christian ma

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This story available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09075<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09075

GA Moderator announces names for special committee to study
civil union and Christian marriage

>Committee of 13 will begin work in March

>Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE - The Reverend Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the
218th General Assembly (2008) of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), has selected members for the General Assembly
Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Union and
Christian Marriage.

Last summer's General Assembly directed the Moderator to
"appoint a special committee, representing the broad
diversity and theological balance of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.), to study the following ... including any
policy recommendations growing out of the study:

-The history of the laws governing marriage and civil
union, including current policy debates.

-How the theology and practice of marriage have developed
in the Reformed and broader Christian tradition.

-The relationship between civil union and Christian
marriage.

-The effects of current laws on same-gender partners and
their children.

-The place of covenanted same-gender partnerships in the
Christian community.

The special committee is to make its report to the 219th
General Assembly (2010) next summer in Minneapolis.

Of the thirteen on the special committee, six are between
the ages of 36-45, six are between 46 and 55, and one is
older than 55.

Reyes-Chow used a video clip posted on his blog
[www.mod.reyes-chow.com] Tuesday evening in advance of
today's release to comment about the selection process to
fill this and additional special committees that will be
announced later this week.

In the clip, he explained that he had extended an "open
invitation to submit names - promising to select people
that I believed could bring passion, thought, intellect,
experience, foresight and vision" to the task.

Reyes-Chow said, "Those who have been chosen have a deep
commitment to the church, a deep love for Christ, and are
seeking and yearning for a way to be church in new and
discerning ways."

He continued, "We owe our deepest gratitude to those who
have accepted this calling - the privilege and
responsibility of serving on task forces and study groups
at the General Assembly level of our denomination."

Named to the special committee are the Reverends Clayton F.
Allard (Grace Presbytery), Emily J. Anderson (East
Tennessee Presbytery), Margaret Aymer Oget (Greater Atlanta
Presbytery), Steve Hancock (Arkansas Presbytery), Tracie
Mayes Stewart (Salem Presbytery), James Szeyller (Charlotte
Presbytery), and William Teng (National Capital
Presbytery); and elders Luis Antonio De La Rosa (Pacific
Presbytery), Katina Miner (San Francisco Presbytery),
Stephen L. Salyards (San Gabriel Presbytery), and Lisa
Cooper Van Riper (Foothills Presbytery). Emily W. Miller
(Shenandoah Presbytery) and Derrick Weston (Pittsburgh
Presbytery) will also serve as members.

Szeyller will serve as chairperson of the group.

Staffing the committee will be the Reverend David Gambrell,
associate for worship, Theology Worship and Education
(General Assembly Council), and the Reverend Vernon
Broyles, volunteer in mission, Office of the General
Assembly.

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