PITTSBURGH, July 2, 2012 – An attempt to defund a study of women’s status in church leadership fell one vote short of adoption in the Mission Coordination Committee of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
After being presented the study proposal by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty of Bellarmine University in Louisville and Deborah Kapp of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, teaching elder commissioner Hope Italiano Lee offered the substitute motion that sought to redirect the proposal’s $137,750 costs to direct mission instead of the study. The substitute motion failed 25-26-1.
The initial proposal that finally prevailed calls for the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns (ACWC) to oversee the appointment of a subcommittee to engage in a study over the next four years of “the status of women at all levels of the church that will: (a) assess the presence, participation, and effectiveness of women at all levels of the PC(USA), both elected and employed; (b) explore and analyze attitudes about women in leadership; and (c) describe the treatment of women in leadership positions, including how they are compensated as compared to men.”
Lee’s alternative acknowledged that “certainly these issues are important” but maintained the church should be spending such funds not on studies but on “mission in action.”
While the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been the subject of intense study and self-study, Kapp said data on the subject of women’s status in church leadership is very dated not only in this denomination but in others as well.
Hinson-Hasty added that this study will also aggregate data on the status of clergy couples and bivocational ministers – whose experience has received scant study here or elsewhere.
The subject generated spirited debate in the committee. Jean Shaw of Sacramento Presbytery told her fellow commissioners, “When I read this study, I thought a lifeline had been sent my way. It’s difficult when you experience the lower pay, the lesser calls. My congregation is 75 percent women. What would I say to the women there if this is not approved? What would I say to my daughter?”
Elizabeth Torres of Tropical Florida Presbytery said: “I’m a racial ethnic woman. I know what it is to be discriminated against within my own church, which is Hispanic-Latin. We are pushed aside and our opinions aren’t recognized, aren’t validated. We have two strikes against us: we’re women and we’re Hispanic. This study would probably help us.”
Brad Simpson, from Abingdon Presbytery in Pennsylvania, expressed ambivalence: “I’ve been discriminated against because I’m a single male; I don’t have children. If this could solve problems for those being discriminated against, I’d be all for it. I just don’t see how this will help the situation.”
And Sandy McConnell, from the Presbytery of Miami in Ohio, said: “I will have a difficult time explaining to people in my presbytery why their per capita dollars are being spent in this way.”
After the vote was taken, Lee expressed her intentions to file a minority report, inviting others to sign on with her, so that both options could be considered when the committee reports to the whole assembly later in the week.
