 What will the key issues be at the 215th General Assembly? By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, May 1, 2003 Each year, Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), compiles a list of what he thinks, as of mid-January, will be the top ten issues for the upcoming General Assembly. The following is a verbatim account of Kirkpatrick's top-10 (non-prioritized) list for the 215th General Assembly that will convene in Denver on May 24. The Layman Online, after reviewing documents being distributed to commissioners on Kirkpatrick's issues, also provides additional information and links to committee reports and overtures posted on the Web site of the Presbyterian Church (USA). 1. "National Ministry Strategies: The National Ministries Division is bringing to the assembly two strategy papers concerning the church's activities in two crucial areas – higher education and ministries to Hispanic-Latino constituencies in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)." The Layman Online: No information about these papers is currently available on the committee agendas that are posted on the PCUSA Web site for the 214th General Assembly. 2. "Procedures to Implement Biennial Assemblies: The 214th General Assembly (2002) voted to move to every-other-year assemblies after the 216th assembly in 2004. This year's assembly will need to take action on a variety of implementing actions, such as changing terms and election years to match and adjusting the number of commissioners at each assembly." The Layman Online: The Committee on General Assembly Procedures will consider a number of changes that are required for the transition to biennial assemblies – but that's not a done deal yet. Kirkpatrick did not mention that the same committee will also consider Overture 03-15, which seeks to set aside the vote for biennial assemblies and continue having them annually. Another overture on the committee's agenda, 03-13, would dramatically increase the requirements for calling for a special meeting of the General Assembly. Currently, the moderator is required to call a special meeting at the request of 25 elders and 25 commissioners. The Presbytery of Baltimore would require that one-fourth of the elder-commissioners and one-fourth of the minister-commissioners submit the request – roughly 150 total or three times the current requirement. Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel recently invalidated the petition to call the 214th General Assembly back into session although it included the requisite number of signatures. The Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly issued an order arising from that petition that criticized the way the moderator responded, but it upheld the invalidation of the petition. The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly endorsed the Baltimore overture. 3. "War and Peace: The prospect of the United States launching a war against Iraq has generated actions in many presbyteries calling for restraint, for peace in the Middle East, for support of the United Nations, and for upholding civil liberties. These matters will undoubtedly be a major concern of the assembly." The Layman Online: Only two reports on peacemaking have been posted for the General Assembly Committee on Peacemaking – a resolution that calls for the end of Israeli occupation in what's called Palestinian territories and a resolution asking the General Assembly to reaffirm the denomination's peacemaking program. The 214th General Assembly approved a resolution that called on President George W. Bush to use restraint in dealing with Iraq. The resolution was not a demand that the president not intervene militarily, but Kirkpatrick joined a National Council of Churches globetrotting team that opposed the U.S.-British-led coalition's intervention to end the regime of Saddam Hussein. 4. "Abortion Policy: Overtures have been received to modify the action taken by the 214th General Assembly (2002) on late-term abortions, and various groups are seeking to change the church's position on abortion." The Layman Online: Two overtures relating to abortion have been posted on the agenda for the General Assembly Committee on Health Issues. One (03-21) concurs, with slight modification, with the decision by the 214th General Assembly to affirm a mother's right to have a partial-birth abortion. The other (03-18) seeks to restore the historic Presbyterian principle that life is sacred. Meanwhile, national events have cast a shadow on the General Assembly's action in 2002. The U.S. Senate voted 64-33 on March 13 to ban partial-birth abortion. Eleven of the 13 Presbyterian senators voted for the ban. The House is expected to vote soon. If both houses concur and President George W. Bush signs the legislation – which he says he will – the Presbyterian Church (USA) could be in the position of supporting an illegal procedure that is opposed by an overwhelming majority of Americans. 5. "Agency and Ecumenical Reviews: The review committee from the first of six General Assembly agencies will present its report on the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Also, the Committee on Ecumenical Relations will report on its review of the World Council of Churches. Both reports express appreciation for the good work of the bodies being reviewed." The Layman Online: The General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical Relations and Catholicity will receive a review of the World Council of Churches by a committee that includes a Presbyterian minister who is a member of the council's governing body. That review endorses the council and gives a resounding vote of confidence to Kirkpatrick, who also is a member of the council's governing body. But the review committee's 12-page report also shows that the WCC is in financial and theological disarray, so that only half of its member churches support its work. The leading support from North America comes from the Presbyterian Church (USA), which gives the WCC five times as much money per member as the second-leading contributor, the United Methodist Church. The committee's report recommends continued high-level funding for the WCC. It neither reviews or criticizes the WCC's leftist political policies. 6. Women Ministers: The Advocacy Committee on Women's Concerns will bring to the assembly its report and recommendations on "Clergywomen's Experiences in Ministry: Reality and Challenges." This report recommends ways for the church to support the full participation of women in the ordained ministry of the church. The Layman Online: One of the longest reports to be reviewed by the General Assembly is a 30-page document by the Advocacy Committee on Women's Concerns. The Committee on Church Orders and Ministry will first consider the report. It's premise is that women who are ministers in the Presbyterian Church are victims of discrimination – lower pay, poor staff relations, problems with congregations. The report is based on answers to questions in a survey that was sent to 3,853 clergywomen in July 2002. The Advisory Committee said 1,404 women responded. The report cites as evidence of discrimination the fact that 50 percent of the graduates of Presbyterian-related seminaries in 2001 were women but only 18 percent got calls to serve local churches. "Where are the women going?" it asks. "It seems that many PNCs are reluctant to seriously consider interviewing clergywomen." 7. Changing Patterns of Family Life: The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy will ask the assembly to approve a policy paper and recommendations to strengthen the church's ministry to people in a variety of family contexts, and advocate for public policies that support family life. The Layman Online: While Kirkpatrick says the family policy paper -- titled "Living Faithfully with Families in Transition" – would "strengthen the church's ministry to people in a variety of family contexts," some evangelicals are deploring the study because it includes as godly examples of families a variety of groups, including homosexual couples and single mothers with out-of-wedlock children. The six-page report and 47-page rationale will be considered by the Committee on National Issues. A stinging criticism of the report has been written by a noted evangelical analyst, Alan Wisdom of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Wisdom called the report a "crushing disappointment." Terry Schlossberg, executive director of Presbyterians Pro-Life, said, "The policy, if adopted, will put the PCUSA on record officially sanctioning every deviant form of family, thus redefining family altogether. It will erase the significance of marriage to healthy family life." 8. Budget Concerns: This has been a difficult year financially for the agencies of the General Assembly. The General Assembly Council will present a proposed 2004 budget that is approximately $3 million smaller than proposed initially last year. The Presbyterian Foundation is impacted by declines in the stock market; and rising health-care expenses are forcing the Board of Pensions to raise dues for coverage. Budget matters are likely to be a major concern at the assembly. The Layman Online: Budget information, which will be considered by the General Assembly's Committee on Mission Coordination and Budgets had not been posted on the General Assembly Web site by April 30, 2003. But, based on actions by the General Assembly Council in February, the commissioners will be asked to make sharp cuts in spending. The GAC's budget proposal projects 2004 program revenue at $126 million, down from $140 million in 2001. The shortfall is due to a number of factors: economic conditions, membership losses and withholding per capita because of disagreement with the denomination's programs. 9. Abolition of For-Profit Prisons: The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Polity has completed a major study on private, for-profit prisons that it will bring to the assembly with its recommendation that the church work for the abolition of such institutions. The Layman Online: The Advisory Committee's three and one-half page report on private, for-profit prisons, along with a 22-page rationale, deplores the idea that businesses would profit off of incarceration and says that factor constitutes a "fundamental conflict with the concept of rehabilitation as the ultimate goal of the prison system." The report has an anti-prison bias, saying: "Presbyterian policy has opposed prisons in general as the primary means of addressing criminal behavior since 1972. Not only have we been collectively guilty in not addressing these problems, but also trends of social injustice and punishment over rehabilitation have significantly worsened in the last thirty years." The prison report will be reviewed by the General Assembly Committee on National Affairs. The Advisory Committee's study suggests that only the state can rehabilitate prisoners, but the data show that the recidivism rate for government-run prisons is as high as 80-percent. The Advisory Committee's study does not include faith-based programs such as Prison Fellowship's InterChange program, which is a prison within a prison. The Charles Colson-developed ministry contracts with corrections officials to run prison units for volunteers who choose to enroll for Bible studies, discipline-training and educational classes. Studies show the recidivism rates in InterChange prison units are only one-third of prisoners in the general population. Lawsuits against the evangelical ministry have been filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 10. Resolution on Africa: The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, working with a variety of other assembly agencies, will call the commissioners' attention to the scourges of poverty, violence, and AIDS that are ravaging the continent, and call on the church to take action to counter them. The Layman Online: The resolution on Africa has not been posted yet. Other issues
The mildly stated overture prescribes no aggressive action by the General Assembly itself to enforce the church's ordination standards. Not surprisingly, two key groups that work with Kirkpatrick, the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, endorse the purpose of the Redstone proposal, which essentially would maintain the status quo with no disciplinary intervention by the General Assembly. The Redstone overture will be reviewed by the General Assembly Committee on Church Polity. Another issue that didn't make Kirkpatrick's list deals with the leading controversy in the Presbyterian Church for 30 years – the constitutional standard that requires men and women who are candidates for ordination as ministers, elders or deacons to live chastely if they are single or in fidelity if they are married.
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