 Detroit overture wants racism training at General Assemblies By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, March 24, 2004 An overture to the 216th General Assembly would add racism training to the workload of future meetings of the national governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose agendas are already expected to be packed.
Overture 04-28 from the Presbytery of Detroit wants to set aside additional time for racism training during the 2006, 2008 and 2010 General Assemblies and to establish an evaluation process to determine whether to continue the training. The overture also calls for a confession: "… that our society created a system of white privilege or racism by incorporating polices and procedures based on negative stereotypes of people of color into the normal operations of our institutions." For years, racism has been a prominent theme in the denomination. It has been addressed through studies, General Assembly actions, a half-day of racism training at the 2001 General Assembly, quotas and other strategies. Nonetheless, the PCUSA remains a predominantly (92.6 percent) white institution with the other 7.4 percent spread among African-American, Korean, Hispanic, Native American and other groups. The PCUSA has fallen short of making significant progress on goals set by the 1999 General Assembly, which adopted a strategy titled "Facing Racism: A Vision of the Beloved Community." That strategy called for increasing non-white membership in the denomination to 10 percent by 2005 and 20 percent by 2010. The 1999 action increased funding for developing more ethnic congregations, but little progress has been made toward those goals. A survey by the denomination's Office of Research Services in 2000, more than a year after the Fort Worth General Assembly, revealed that few Presbyterians were familiar with "Facing Racism" – and that most believed the goals were not attainable. The poll showed that 46 percent of the members opposed "significantly more money and resources" for racial-ethnic programs compared to 22 percent who favored additional funding. The poll also focused in on some high-tension areas. For instance, most members preferred helping existing racial ethnic congregations to grow rather than making greater efforts "to reach out to racial ethnic persons." And while most members, deacons, elders and ministers agreed that "congregations will become truly racially and ethnically diverse" only when their neighborhoods become racially and ethnically integrated, they also said they preferred to live in "mostly white" neighborhoods. The Presbyterian Church (USA) does have a plan to pump millions of dollars into developing racial-ethnic church development – if the money materializes. The denomination's $40-million Mission Initiative Campaign, a.k.a. "Joining Hearts and Hands," is intended to raise $20 million for world mission and $20 million for new church development. The emphasis in new church development would be on racial-ethnic congregations. But, as of Dec. 31, 2003, the Mission Initiative Campaign, which was established by the 213th General Assembly in 2001, had spent more than $1 million and raised only $675,475 in cash. It has announced pledges of $5.4 million, mostly from presbyteries. The text of the Detroit overture: Overture 04-28. On Directing GAC to Provide an Introduction to Anti-Racism Training for Assemblies in 2006, 2008, and 2010, and Making Recommendations in 2010 for Future Events – From the Presbytery of Detroit. Whereas we believe that we are all created by God in God's image, have infinite value in the eyes of God and are made one in Jesus Christ; Whereas we confess that our society created a system of white privilege or racism by incorporating policies and procedures based on negative stereo-types of people of color into the normal operations of our institutions; Whereas we confess that although progress toward equality has been made, this racism remains widespread and continues to damage and diminish all of us, our churches, our society and its institutions; Whereas the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recognizes that the task of dismantling racism is a long-term struggle that requires discernment, prayer and worship based action (Facing Racism: A Vision of the Beloved Community); Whereas the 210th General Assembly (1998) adopted the Racial Ethnic Immigrant Growth Strategy which sets the goal of increasing racial ethnic membership to 10% by 2005 and 20% by 2010, and notes the necessity of understanding and dismantling racism in order to reach this goal; Whereas the National Ministries Division developed and led a three hour introduction to anti-racism training for all commissioners to the 213th General Assembly (2001); Whereas over 800 people attended this event, and it led to an increase in anti-racism awareness and training across the PC (USA); Therefore be it resolved that the Presbytery of Detroit overture the 216th General Assembly (2004) (1) to direct the General Assembly Council to provide an introduction to anti-racism training for all commissioners attending the 217th General Assembly (2006), the 218th General Assembly (2008), and the 219th General Assembly (2010); and (2) to direct the General Assembly Council to evaluate the ongoing need for and impact of such events and make recommendations to the 219th General Assembly (2010) about holding such events at future General Assemblies. |
||
Respond to this article |
||
| Home
· Archives
· The
Layman ·
PLC
Publications Presbyterian Lay Committee · Feedback · Links |
||
