Online for the 210th General Assembly
Saturday, June 20
NNPCW funding is restored
By Robert P. Mills
The Presbyterian Layman
After a carefully orchestrated, tearfully executed late-night demonstration, a move to restore funding to the National Network of Presbyterian College Women for one year was approved. The assembly also instructed the General Assembly Council to appoint a seven-member committee to evaluate NNPCW’s resources, publications and program and report back to the 1999 GA.
As the first order of business on the Assembly’s final morning, vice-moderator James Mead moved to have funding continued and the committee established. The motion to refer drew immediate opposition.
Commissioners opposed
Leslie Day Ebert, elder from Los Ranchos Presbytery, asked commissioners to remember Thursday night "when heads were clear and weren’t exhausted and our emotions weren’t running as high as they are now. We voted clearly and intelligently and resoundingly not to fund the NNPCW and for very good reason."
Jim Berkley of Seattle told of his daughter Mary, who attends Western Washington College, where 1,200 of the college’s 10,000 students gather weekly for a ministry to students at a nearby Presbyterian church.
"What’s the difference between Mary’s faithful discipleship ministry and NNPCW?" Berkley asked. He answered, "Mary’s group doesn’t have a budget-savvy Louisville insider to find funding for her pet project. Nor do tens of thousands of other Presbyterian college women and men. Friends, you with the passion for the little splinter group that is posing as a national ministry [NNPCW currently serves 250 college women in seven states], I have a plan for you: Stick your hands in your pockets and you come up with the funds. Don’t take them out of my pocket, my church’s or the denomination’s pocket."
Kathy Northrop, a minister from Charlotte Presbytery spoke against the referral because of the flawed process. "What happened last night at 10:30 at this assembly is a perfect example of what is wrong with the PCUSA, why people do not trust the General Assembly, and why persons leave the church. The majority had voted at least twice on the issue before us, but the minority would not submit. They were allowed to demonstrate and several speakers were allowed to debate on one side under the guise of personal privilege, thus manipulating the entire GA."
Katie Moffett from the Presbytery of the James said, "I stand to the end for the right of the NNPWC to exist." However, she noted "it is clear that their curriculum does not uphold the constitutional standards of the church." She called on commissioners "to honor the vows we make each time a person is baptized. We have a responsibility to make sure that not one of these college women is led astray."
Despite twice having voted down funding for the organization, commissioners responded to what some described as "emotional manipulation" by approving the motion 314-183-13.
Personal words
After the vote, moderator Douglas Oldenburg said "Permit me a personal word. Yes I did know and I did give permission for the young women to come and express their deep pain." He said other assemblies have often heard the pain of the gay and lesbian community. "We’ve also heard the pain of pro life people who oppose the assembly’s policy regarding abortion."
But, he added, "I don’t remember the Assembly ever hearing the deep pain of the people we heard about last night. In view of that I allowed them to come forward. When I recognized people for a moment of privilege I did not know what they were going to say. Trust me. I did not know there would be a motion to reconsider. Trust me, I did not. I don’t ask you to agree with the judgments that I make but I do ask you to try to understand."
Following Oldenburg’s personal words, several commissioners were permitted a similar privilege. Louise Holert of Seattle Presbytery told commissioners, "I felt very sad last night and feel I need to share my pain with you as an assembly. I felt emotionally violated and raped last night by the process that seemed unpresybterian to me. I’ve heard what you said this morning, but we commissioners have lived with the decisions of our committees and the assembly, and we have felt pain. Sometimes the vote has been lost by just one vote, but we’ve accepted the decisions even when we lost."
Holert concluded, "I leave this assembly feeling betrayed by the system."