The Top Ten issues at GA – #1 Women of Faith awards are top issue at Fort Worth GA By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Friday, June 18, 1999 FORT WORTH – The top issue facing the 1999 General Assembly in Fort Worth is the Women of Faith awards, scheduled to be presented to two lesbians and a supporter of the pro-gay ordination movement at a GA breakfast on June 20. Jane Spahr While there is, at this time, no formal action being asked of the Assembly, two presbyteries, Pittsburgh and Beaver-Butler, have expressed their dismay over the award recipients and a church session has voted to redirect its GA funds to Presbyterian renewal groups. Numerous other sessions and individuals have expressed strong disagreement with the award winners through letters to denominational leaders. Controversy centers on Spahr Most of the controversy over the awards has been centered on "lesbian evangelist" Jane Spahr. Spahr is employed by Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., as a "lesbian evangelist" for That All May Freely Serve, an organization devoted to the ordination of gay and lesbian Presbyterians as church officers. Other award recipients are Letty Russell, the keynote speaker at the fourth (1996) ReImagining conference, where she was quoted as saying, "As a lesbian, I had decided to use my energy on subversion and not on church committees," and Jane Dempsey Douglass, a keynote speaker at the Covenant Network's 1997 conference. She told her audience that ordaining persons who engage in homosexual behavior is consistent with the Reformed tradition, even though she admitted the reformers universally condemned such behavior. Flip-flopping decisions The National Ministries Division steering committee overturned Spahr's selection on the grounds that her ministry opposes the policies of the PCUSA. "To recognize her would appear to endorse the position for which she's been advocating," said National Ministries Division director Curtis A. Kearns Jr., who requested the steering committee's review. That decision was overturned by a 9-2 secret ballot vote of the General Assembly Council executive committee. Other news articles on the Women of Faith awards: Spahr will get Women of Faith award Russell thinks Women of Faith award outrage 'unfair'

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