 Council votes to give Presbyterian Women a non-elected seat on its Executive Committee By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, June 25, 2004
By voice vote, the council changed its Manual of Operations to add the moderator of the Churchwide Coordinating Team of Presbyterian Women to the council's Executive Committee as an "ad hoc voting member effective July 1, 2004." The moderator of Presbyterian Women, an autonomous organization that maintains a staff of 18 at the Louisville headquarters of the PCUSA, already has a seat on the full council. But the organization's leaders bristled when the Executive Committee adopted the 2005 and 2006 budget proposals and restructuring without their say. Previously lodged in the National Ministries Division, Presbyterian Women was shifted, by the approval of the Executive Committee, to the Office of the Executive Director of the General Assembly Council, which was a move the women's group opposed. During the debate on the motion to change the Manual of Operations, there was no mention by proponents of how they perceived that the shift would affect the work of Presbyterian Women. However, some said privately that they faced more accountability – and possibly restrictions – in the executive director's office. Ken Newbold of the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina in South Carolina introduced the motion to give Presbyterian Women a seat on the Executive Committee. Already, the organization has several members on the Executive Committee, but they are on the committee by virtue of their selection by the General Assembly and the leadership positions they hold on the council. Newbold described Presbyterian Women as "an autonomous organization that is self-determining in its leadership, budget and program." Historically, he said, the organization has decided where it wished to be located in the structure of the denomination and that it had previously decided it preferred to work in the National Ministries Division rather than in Congregational Ministries. In National Ministries, Presbyterian Women had the opportunity to work closely with some of its allies, including the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, the Peacemaking Program and the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association. "I believe the dissatisfaction we have heard could have been avoided if the moderator of the Churchwide Coordinating Team of the Presbyterian Women had been a member of the Executive Committee," Newbold said. "It is important to remember that Presbyterian Women have the resources to incorporate and move from the PCUSA umbrella." Neal Presa, vice chairman of the General Assembly Council, said giving Presbyterian Women a seat on the Executive Committee would set a bad precedent. Currently, he said, "all of the members of the Executive Committee have been elected by the General Assembly." Furthermore, there is no rule that prevents the General Assembly from electing the moderator of Presbyterian Women's Churchwide Coordinating Team to the Executive Committee. But Kris Gerling, who is the team's moderator now and is also a member of the General Assembly Council, said, "It seems important to place the moderator on the executive committee. Presbyterian Women has been called a special-interest group. I would agree that we are a special-interest group. Our special interest is the Presbyterian Church (USA)." Gregg Neal of the Presbytery of the Cascades raised the question of whether the Executive Committee was all that powerful. In adopting the budget and some restructuring, the Executive Committee acted only because the full council had been unable to reach those decisions in time to meet the deadline for the 216th General Assembly. John Bolt of West Virginia also spoke against Newbold's motion, saying it "sets a dangerous precedent. Other organizations feel their ox is being gored as well" by the budget cuts and restructuring. After a substitute motion was introduced to have the Executive Committee consider the proposal and make its recommendation to the council, Evelyn Kelly, vice moderator of Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of Olympia, said the time to act was now. "I'd hate to think you would want to alienate more than 60 percent of the members of this denomination," she said. Manley Olsen of Wisconsin also favored giving Presbyterian Women a guaranteed seat on the Executive Committee. He did not believe that having the Executive Committee make the final decision on the budget was necessarily a one-time event. "This is a reaction to what has happened in reference to the budget," Olsen said. "We have no assurance now that some future council will not decide to turn things over to the Executive Committee. We have received copies of letters that indicate people are very upset." Olsen said it was imperative that "we demonstrate that we are going to do something other than say in the future that we'll resolve this problem." Emily Wiggers of the Synod of Mid America and former vice moderator of Presbyterian Women's Churchwide Coordinating Team, opposed delay. "To refer this one more time is somewhat negative, anti-women …," she said. "These perceptions should not happen, but the reality is that they do happen." |
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