The Top Ten issues at GA – #2 NNPCW returns to the General Assembly By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Thursday, June 17, 1999 FORT WORTH – The controversy surrounding the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) is the second most important issue before the 1999 General Assembly, according to the The Layman Online. Despite finding that the NNPCW "clearly violated the policies of the PC (USA), being inconsistent with the church's confessional standards, lacking in Biblical and theological foundation, and failing to provide balanced, accurate resources for study or further discussion," the task force reviewing the Network recommends that the Assembly give the Network a new lease on life and twice as much money. In 1998, General Assembly commissioners decided that the Network's materials were contrary to the church's biblical and confessional policies. They voted to end sponsorship and funding. But an adjournment-eve demonstration, allowed by Moderator Douglas W. Oldenburg and orchestrated with the help of GA staff, built sympathy for the college women's group as they tearfully sang "This Little Light of Mine." Scores of liberal activists held hands and formed a ring around the commissioners. A vote on the last day of the Assembly gave the Network a reprieve until the 1999 General Assembly. Since last year's Assembly, the Network has removed its web site that provided a gateway to hardcore pornography and declared its official publication, Young Women Speak, out of print. More recently, a Network representative participated in the selection of Jane Spahr to receive one of three Women of Faith awards at the June General Assembly. Spahr is a "lesbian evangelist." Overture requests ending funding Overture 99-42 by the Beaver-Butler (Pa.) Presbytery asks the Assembly to "find the program and philosophy of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) to be contrary to the biblical and constitutional standards of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and, therefore, unable to carry out the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.);" and "discontinue all funding and other support of NNPCW, while recognizing the right of independent groups of Presbyterians, including college women, to organize themselves without denominational funding or support." Beaver-Butler Presbytery got a copy of Young Women Speak and quoted several passages in the overture. The overture concluded that the Network exalts personal experience over Scripture; advocates understandings of God "derived from fertility goddesses;" teaches that homosexual behavior is "normal, natural and moral;" works against the denomination's ordination standards; and "distorts the plain words of the Bible." The Beaver-Butler overture says no one from the Network "has expressed any desire" to conform to the policies of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Other news articles on the NNPCW: College women's resources studied by woman minister Documentary on college women's group mailed to commissioners Index of past articles on the NNPCW

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