The Covenant Network announces its policy recommendations for the 218^th GA
[posted 5-10-08]

This G.A. can make real progress:

In light of the recent GA PJC decision in Bush V. Presbytery of Pittsburgh, the Covenant Network believes that our hopes for a just and gracious church require working at this Assembly both to reaffirm the traditional Presbyterian process ratified by the 2006 Assembly and to change the standards for ordination.

To that end, we urge the General Assembly to take several actions:

The Office of the General Assembly has now posted lists (in PDF format) of

[Posted by Doug King, 4-18-08]

The Rev. Dr. Christian T. Iosso, on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy which he staffs, has sent this letter to an e-list of interested people around the church. He has graciously agreed for us to share it here. It has been edited very slightly.

Dear Friends interested in Social Justice and Social Witness Policy:

At tax time, with a recession taking hold – in the midst of a very exciting political primary season—with two wars grinding on – and before Pentecost, I write to share with you information on a number of items going to this year’s General Assembly and on several other matters. We use links rather than attachments and I urge you to look at the resources made available, especially posted copies of the policies themselves. The core of all this effort is the conviction that the Church must speak and act on matters of grave social concern as part of our witness to Jesus Christ.

Because of the two-year General Assembly cycle, we have a seemingly larger-than-usual number of reports going to the commissioners. In order for elected persons to affect the programs of the General Assembly Council, it is necessary to put matters of social concern before the Assembly so that policies can be guided by representatives of the whole church. The word “policy” is used to show that we are not simply “pronouncing” on topics, or making “deliverances” in an omni-directional manner. The recommendations in all of the reports I will name are printed first according to General Assembly practice; the rationales or background statements follow, even if logically they should come first. But the key rationale is in the Book of Order, that “truth is in order to goodness;” hence the practice of adopting specific recommendations, rather than simply “receiving” them (which we do for study documents).

At this time, as my opening line suggests, we are seeing major changes in prospect on a very significant scale, and these changes affect everything the Advisory Committee is bringing to the Assembly. A brief overview of the set of 9 reports can be found on the ACSWP GA 2008 flyer, Responding to the Call.

All of the following documents are available on the website >>

Or click on any of the titles below for that document (in PDF format):

FROM HOMELESSNESS TO HOPE: This resolution addresses the most drastic evidence of poverty in America, the million plus who are homeless, on average, each night. Authorized by the 2006 General Assembly and developed by expert practitioners from across the church, this speaks directly to those 50% of our congregations who do some caring ministry related to people in need – food banks, Habitat for Humanity, offering beds, investing in affordable housing, etc. The basic issue here as elsewhere is to connect the church’s charitable works to the prophetic effort to change structures. Controversial is a proposal to invest unrestricted reserves of the General Assembly Council in affordable housing at 2/3rds market rate through the risk-absorbing intermediary of LISC, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. The Church has done such program investing since the 1970s through the Creative Investment Program related to the Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee and managed by the Presbyterian Foundation, but finances are tighter today.

The scarcity and commercialization of clean water resources – a big ecumenical concern, is being superceded by the pressure on basic grains, partly by the rise of agri-or-bio-fuels. This is an inefficient way to make fuel, even for transportation purposes. Beyond that aspect of the struggle over resources, we are also aware that more solvent economies are growing rapidly in energy use: China and India above all. Thus this picture has big geopolitical implications.

COSTLY LESSONS OF THE IRAQ WAR: Speaking of geopolitics, some see this long war as the intervention to end interventions. The costs in human, material, military, and diplomatic terms are enormous and mounting. How do we scale down this catastrophe? The study paper recommends a strongly Gospel-based strategy of “repent, restore, rebuild, and reconcile,” internationalizing the occupation and restoring sovereignty as swiftly as reasonable, and acknowledging continued humanitarian reconstruction responsibility by the United States. Among the foremost lessons is to insist on “police-model” responses to terrorism rather than vast military over-reactions, punishing whole societies and downgrading the future influence and power of the United States. Among the key recommendations here is that the peacemaking approach of 1980 be updated with the help of college and seminary faculty consultations to address the changed place of the US in the post-Cold War order. Although the mainline churches were right in counseling against the war, the task of re-visioning our country’s place in the world requires new ways of teaching “the Gospel of peace.”

STRUCK DOWN BUT NOT DESTROYED: FROM KATRINA TO A MORE EQUITABLE FUTURE: This resolution is a response to the Gulf Coast crisis that again builds upon the great charitable work of Presbyterians, at least 30,000 of whom have volunteered through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help New Orleans and other communities re-build. One church near a broken levee has an American flag painted on its roof: would that this metaphor for governmental shelter and protection had proven true. The questions here are not only those of justice and governmental responsibility under God, but of our social bond with afflicted areas and populations within the United States. The study paper’s main author grew up in New Orleans and asks hard questions about the elements of “structural racism” and cultural loss in the continued diaspora of almost half of the citizens of that city, without forgetting the losses in Mississippi and elsewhere, and on the environment itself.

GOD’S WORK IN WOMEN’S HANDS (PAY EQUITY): Over the past 30 years, women’s wages have moved from being 65% to 77% of men’s comparable wages. For a church that takes the equality of women and racial-ethnic groups seriously, this basic disparity remains crucial, and deeply affects the poverty in which one sixth of US children live. This resolution builds on the policy, “God’s Work in Our Hands,” which looks at the meaning of calling in today’s world of work (1995), and provides tools for the church to improve its own track record as well as that of society. Several presbyteries have addressed the too-predictable disparities among ministers’ salaries and one, in particular, provides a model for assessing pay equity concerns.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN COLOMBIA: “More than 2,500 union members in Colombia have been killed since 1985…so far this year, 17...” (NYT, April 14, 08). Church leaders are in exile in the U.S. Members of our church “accompany” church workers still in 3-million plus slums of Colombians displaced by land seizures and terrorism by para-militaries or rebels.

It is in this context that this timely resolution provides background to a “Free-Trade” agreement now stalled in Congress. And though concerns about the impact of such agreements are expressed in the rationale, the Church is most concerned about how to minister in a climate of fear and corruption with which a government richly supported by the United States has been clearly linked. A section of this resolution looks at the similar human rights situation in Philippines, where the US supports a government responsible for the death and torture of church workers and others who challenge oligarchs and their paramilitaries.

The “war on terrorism” can be an excuse for undemocratic governments to violate human rights—this is part of the timeliness of this resolution, though it also notes the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Christian support remains crucial for the cause of human rights.

COMFORT MY PEOPLE (ON MINISTRY WITH THOSE AFFECTED BY SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS): Following the 2006 policy statement on Disabilities, this proposed policy statement (longer and more comprehensive than a resolution) addresses fundamental issues that affect a significant percentage of the population. Distinguishing between common episodic mental stresses and more major and/or systemic disorders, the policy sections recommend “parity” in treatment reimbursement and a variety of individual and community-based responses to the range of serious afflictions. Alongside this judicious use of the “medical model,” however, is an emphatically theological response for those who feel stigmatized and in exile due to serious mental illness. Sections of the report provide personal witness and inside understanding of experiences of suffering and healing, inviting all church members to work with the Holy Spirit in responding to this part of our human condition.

LIFT EVERY VOICE: DEMOCRACY, VOTING RIGHTS, AND ELECTORAL REFORM: Responding to the 2000 election debacle and continued disenfranchisement of poor and minority citizens, this resolution addresses the basic need for fairness and integrity in the US political system. Despite the re-authorization of the Civil Rights Act, the Justice Department itself has been politicized and new concerns have been raised about paperless electronic voting machines. Beyond these basic challenges, this resolution recommends larger reforms: re-enfranchisement of felons who have paid their debts to society, non-partisan election commissions, weekend or special holiday voting, DC voting rights, further campaign finance improvements, all based in an affirmative, nation-wide right to vote. Inequities between “battleground” and “bystander” states caused by the Electoral College will be very evident in this year’s general election, but the report recommends study of additional reforms of the undemocratic College and other voting methods.

A NEW SOCIAL CREED: TOWARD A NEW SOCIAL AWAKENING: One page long, the Social Creed is a consensus of Christian social teaching rather than a doctrinal creed. It recalls and celebrates the very influential 1908 Social Creed of the Federal Council of Churches that built church support for an end to child labor (in the US!), better working conditions, and several major elements of what became the New Deal 25 years later. The current Social Creed broadens concerns and anchors them theologically much more than the earlier version, and also encourages the “convergence” with Evangelicals that is increasingly evident on matters such as poverty, the environment, and the war. A book, New Prayers for the Social Awakening, inspired by the Social Creed and modeled on Walter Rauschenbusch’s Prayers for the Social Awakening (1909) has been published by Westminster/John Knox; a 28-minute documentary film will be shown at the General Assembly, and a longer booklet on the particular recommendations will also be available.

ALSO AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY--Additional communications from ACSWP:

Smithfield Foods: Response to Referral: The Advisory Committee was referred the 2006 Assembly’s strong statement of concern for working conditions and an un-coerced union election at the Smithfield Foods pork packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina. ACSWP and representatives of two presbyteries, Coastal Carolina and New Hope, have met with workers, representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and top management of Smithfield Foods and a leading subsidiary, Murphy Brown.

Advice and Counsel Memoranda: These apply General Assembly social witness policy to overtures, commissioners’ resolutions, and other reports coming as items of business before Assembly Committees.

Narrative Report: This is a brief summary of the Committee’s work that is provided to each Assembly for information.
 

If you are in San Jose for the Assembly, we invite you to stop by the ACSWP GA booth #612 and introduce yourself. The Social Witness of the church is not something we take for granted. How can we help you in your witness where you are?

Envision: The Gospel, Politics, and the Future, a Conference at Princeton University, June 8-10, 2008. This is a major event representing the “convergence” referred to above, with major Evangelical leaders like Jim Wallis, Rich Cizik, Ron Sider, and Brian McLaren along with mainline leaders like Randall Balmer, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Miguel de la Torre. This is aimed at thoughtful activists, including young adults of many different backgrounds. The Advisory Committee is among the sponsors of this serious look at ethics and faith in this new century. See their website: www.ev08.org and consider passing this information on.

Great blessings and strength in God,

Chris Iosso
Coordinator, ACSWP.

Candidates’ booklet published

The Office of the Stated Clerk has just published a packet of information on the four candidates for Moderator of the 218^th General Assembly. For each candidate you will find a photograph and biographical sketch, a personal statement by the candidate (including a statement regarding the candidate’s sense of call to office), an announcement of the commissioner each candidate has selected to be presented to the assembly for confirmation as Vice Moderator, and the responses of the candidate to a questionnaire developed by the Stated Clerk.

ACSWP (the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy) is bringing a number of reports to the Assembly. These have been called for by previous Assemblies; they are in continuity with a long history of Presbyterian statements on social issues; and they have gone through a detailed study and consultation process that is outlined toward the end of the Manual of the General Assembly, under the title "Forming Social Policy."

If you have comments about any of these important reports,
please send a note,
to be shared here!

Compiled by Doug King for the Witherspoon Society website     [3-3-08]

Since late November 2007, a total of four Presbyterians have declared their interest in serving as Moderator of the 218^th General Assembly when it gathers in June in San Jose, and for the following two years.

The Witherspoon Society has a practice of not endorsing any candidate for the position, but we do want to provide basic information on the candidates, and help our readers to find more information, especially if they will be serving as GA commissioners with the responsibility for electing the Moderator at the beginning of the Assembly.

We are providing now the Presbyterian News Service reports of each candidacy as it was announced, along with links to the websites of the candidates. We encourage you to get in touch with any or all of the candidates through their websites, asking your questions and letting them know your concerns and convictions.

We invite any and all of the candidates to submit occasional "think pieces" of their own for posting here, although we may need to exercise some editorial judgment to insure that submissions from no one candidate too far out-weigh those from the others.  

And you our readers are invited to share comments as well -- as long as they are not [in the opinion of your WebWeaver!] in bad taste, overly hostile or personal, or mere "campaign speeches" for or against any one candidate.

Just click here to send your notes to dougking2@aol.com

We will soon be sending a short list of questions to each of the candidates, seeking their responses to be published in the Spring 2008 issue of our newsletter, Network News, which will be sent to all commissioners and advisory delegates, and will also be posted here.

The four candidates are listed here in the order in which they announced their candidacies. They are:

National Capital Presbytery endorses GA moderator candidate

The Rev. Bill Teng seeks to restore ‘sense of hope’ in denomination

by Toya Richards Hill, Presbyterian News Service

National Capital Presbytery endorsed Teng’s candidacy on Tuesday, Nov. 27. Teng served as moderator of the presbytery in 2004.

“Our denomination at this time really needs to have a sense of hope,” said Teng, pastor at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA.

With churches leaving the PC(USA) and the report of the General Assembly’s Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church still unsettling, “there needs to be someone who could stand up and remind our church what its primary calling is, and that is to go back to the basics, to put our emphasis on mission and evangelism.”

“Bill has been a significant leader in this presbytery,” said the Rev. G. Wilson Gunn Jr., general presbyter. He has worked “tirelessly” at various issues, especially cross-cultural understanding, he said.

Teng was born in Hong Kong, China and moved to the United States at the age of 18. He is a fourth-generation Presbyterian pastor, and said he has a great sense of “gospel debt” to the denomination that led his great grandfather to Christianity.

“I look at myself as a product of Presbyterian mission,” he said.

Teng said he is still developing his platform of issues, but that he will emphasize “what’s important to the church,” and what kind of witness it can have to the world.

He added that one thing that was particularly “edifying” to him in receiving his presbytery’s endorsement was the support shown from both conservative and liberal sides of the denomination.

“I think that really meant a lot to me,” he said.

Teng’s website >> www.billteng.com

Presbyterian Outlook’s report on Bill Teng >>

Bruce Reyes-Chow is second candidate for GA moderator

San Francisco Presbytery endorses new church development pastor

by Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE – January 24, 2008 – The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, 38, pastor of San Francisco’s Mission Bay Community Church and a leader in the “emergent church” movement, is the second announced candidate to stand for election as moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 218th General Assembly (2008) next summer in San Jose, CA.

Reyes-Chow’s candidacy was endorsed Jan. 15 by San Francisco Presbytery. He joins the Rev. Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery in standing for the denomination’s highest elected office.

An ordained Presbyterian minister since 1995, Reyes-Chow is a graduate of San Francisco State University and San Francisco Theological Seminary. He is the grandson of Chinese and Filipino immigrants and was raised in Sacramento and Stockton, CA.

Reyes-Chow is the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, a multi-cultural, multi-generational New Church Development of San Francisco Presbytery that makes extensive use of cyberspace to communicate and conduct its ministry. Reyes-Chow himself is a prolific writer and blogger, calling himself “pastor/geek/dad/follower of Christ.”

Reyes-Chow is a highly sought-after speaker who has served the church at levels as well as in the ecumenical arena. On his campaign blog, he cites at least five reasons for his candidacy:

 •          “The church needs an infusion of positive energy”;

•          “The church needs empowering, Christ-centered leadership”;

•          “The church needs someone who understands the many facets of ministry in the PCUSA”;

•          “The church needs someone who is not afraid to speak the truth”; and

•          “The church needs a Moderator who can be a healthy presence to our congregations throughout the denomination.”

“This is not the time to try to legislate our way out of disagreements,” he told San Francisco Presbytery before the endorsement, “but to engage in the hard work of building relationships that are not about convincing and persuading but of authentic discovery of the voice of Christ within one another.”                         

Reyes-Chow’s website >> www.mod.reyes-chow.com

Presbyterian Outlook’s report on Bruce Reyes-Chow >>

Carl Mazza

Homeless ministry founder is third candidate for GA moderator

The Rev. Carl Mazza is endorsed by New Castle Presbytery

by Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian News Service

Mazza was endorsed for the highest elected General Assembly office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Jan. 18 by New Castle Presbytery, based in Newark, DE.

He joins the Rev. Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery and the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow of San Francisco Presbytery as candidates to succeed the Rev. Joan Gray of Atlanta, moderator of the 217th General Assembly (2006).

Mazza, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, founded Meeting Ground in 1981. It now encompasses two shelters, one for women and one for men; a transitional house; and a rural residential facility for men, women and children. Meeting Ground also operates a care program for children and youth and a church-based winter shelter program that rotates among area churches.

According to Loaves & Fishes, Meeting Ground’s newsletter, in 2007 the ministry provided almost 21,000 bednights of emergency and transitional housing, almost 30,000 meals, and assisted almost 300 persons in the transition from being homeless. Since its inception, Meeting Ground has provided more than 406,000 bednights of emergency and transitional housing.

“The call of my life and my reason for entering the ministry is to be with and among persons who are experiencing homelessness or otherwise struggling to survive at the margins of our society,” Mazza writes on the New Castle Presbytery Web site.

“In 26 years several hundred Presbyterian churches, and thousands of mission volunteers, seminarians, interns, and others have been part of our community and ministry,” Mazza says, “including former [General Assembly] moderator Rick Ufford-Chase.”

Mazza, who is joined in the Meeting Ground ministry by his wife of 34 years, Marsha, says his decision to stand for moderator “is based on my love for the church which has done so much for me. In standing for moderator I can offer to the denomination a different level of discussion from the perspective of my quarter century of unique ministry. I want to encourage the kind of radical, energetic dialogue that we need — not just for ourselves, but for a world that needs us to have it.”

Mazza says he also wants to dispel the notion that “non-parish” ministry is not a sidelight of the church. “The province of the Gospel is not the church, but the world — particularly with the persons at its margins, as the Bible teaches,” he writes, “and the call of the church is to continually create new forms of parish in the world.”

Mazza’s website >> www.carlmazza.org 

Presbyterian Outlook’s report on Carl Mazza >>    [As far as we can discover, Outlook has carried only the Presbyterian News Service report.]                        

Roger Shoemaker

Nebraska elder is fourth candidate for moderator

Roger Shoemaker is leader of PC(USA)’s Czech Mission Network

by Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian News Service

Shoemaker, 74, was endorsed Feb. 16 by Homestead Presbytery.

The only elder in the race, he joins the Rev. Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow of San Francisco Presbytery and the Rev. Carl Mazza of New Castle Presbytery as a candidate for the denomination’s highest elected office.

Born and raised in Illinois, Shoemaker moved with his family to southern California when he was a senior in high school. He is a graduate of Fresno State University with a degree in industrial engineering.

Shoemaker became a Presbyterian in 1960 when he met his wife, Sue. First members of Community Presbyterian Church in Ventura, CA, the Shoemakers later became founding members of Eastminster Presbyterian Church there. They moved to Lincoln in 1969.

Shoemaker has served at all levels of the PC(USA) and in a variety of capacities. He has served as a deacon and an elder, has served as vice-moderator and moderator of Homestead Presbytery, and has served as vice-moderator of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.

He says a turning point in his church life came in 1989, when he served on a task force at Southern Heights church that formed a partnership with a Lutheran church in Lohmen, East Germany, a partnership that continues to this day.

Growing out that partnership came in interest in the Czech Republic. Shoemaker became involved in the General Assembly Council’s Czech Working Group and is currently co-convener of the PC(USA)’s Czech Mission Network. As a result of that work, he has attended several Synods of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren as the PC(USA)’s representative.

“The experiences of these varied exposures are the small grains of sand that make up the rock upon which Roger Shoemaker stands, his Web site says. “These granules of sand are held together by the faith that has grown within him over the years and continues to grow in order that it may be shared.”

Shoemaker’s website >> www.rogershoemaker.com

Do you want to be notified whenever something new is added to this web site?

Just send a note, and we'll add you to our e-list for brief notes when something new is posted here.

1.  We want to share our concerns and views with commissioners and others attending the Assembly, and with anyone else who is watching from afar.  While some of our groups focus on one area of concern and others are more general in their focus, we are all committed to the wholeness of our world, which we understand to involve justice and peace and the well-being of all people; and we are committed to the wholeness and health of our Church and its witness and service in the world.

2.  We want to get to know you better and serve your concerns and needs in any way we can.  So we will invite you to share your views with us and with one another with any email responses or questions.  We'll invite your responses with links here and there, and we'll try to post those that seem to contribute to our conversations.  Just send a note now, and tell us how we can be helpful!