Rebecca Todd Peters is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister, a professor of religious studies at Elon University, and the author of "Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice." In October 2021, Peters wrote an opinion piece for USA Today in which she describes her decision to have two abortions, and how her faith played a role in those decisions. Leslie Scanlon, the Outlook’s national reporter, spoke to Peters about her research on faith and abortion, and her advocacy regarding reproductive justice. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q: How did you get involved in work for reproductive rights? A: “I worked at the national Presbyterian Church office in Louisville in 1991 to 1993 as an intern in the Justice for Women office.” As part of that work, Peters monitored meetings of the Special Committee on Problem Pregnancies and Abortion, attended General Assembly, “watched the vitriolic nature of the debate, and was really … [Read more...]
Breaking the silence: Progressive Christians work to support reproductive rights
In many churches, it’s the subject people never talk about. Yet the Guttmacher Institute estimated in 2017 that nearly one in four American women will have had an abortion by the time she’s 45 — with the incidence even higher, about one in three, a decade or two earlier. So when Sonja Miller, a graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, encourages congregations to become involved in reproductive freedom work in Texas, she tells ministers that “when you stand in that pulpit and you look over your congregation, I want you to count 1, 2, 3 — that one.” As it is becoming increasingly difficult for American women to access legal abortions, some Presbyterians are working to amplify the voices of people of faith who believe in a women’s right to choose — saying it’s vital that progressive congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and elsewhere become places where people end the silence and talk honestly about abortion and reproductive health. In Texas, a … [Read more...]
Pausing for equity: Presbyterians consider how General Assembly makes decisions
With the overall parameters set for the 2022 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – primarily the dates and the hybrid format – the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) is digging into details, including how it can invite the assembly to consider issues of equity during decision making. In its virtual Nov. 18 meeting, COGA discussed the idea of “choice points and equity primes” — voting that COGA will begin using those concepts at its upcoming meetings as a way to model those practices and troubleshoot their use in a PC(USA) context, and that General Assembly commissioners and advisory delegates will be trained in in using these approaches. COGA Moderator Stephanie Anthony, a minister from Illinois, admitted the idea of choice points and equity primes was new to her: “I have no idea what it is.” COGA member Leon Lovell-Martin, who has been leading a COGA workgroup that brought the recommendation, said using those approaches at General … [Read more...]
Presbyterian leaders discuss alternate uses for restricted funds
A work group studying the use of restricted funds in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has determined that the definition of what is “mission” in the church could be expanded to include supporting the ecclesial work of the church — so the money might help fund such things as ecumenical relations or putting on the General Assembly. And it’s identified seven funds whose restrictions it considers racist or somehow against General Assembly policy — leading to the question of how the use of those funds might be reinterpreted, and whether the denomination needs a policy for when donations will not be accepted “because the restrictions are racist, exclusionary or contrary to stated General Assembly policy,” a report from the Restricted Funds team states. The work group has determined that about $77,000 in 15 restricted funds (described as the Pink Funds) currently used by the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) could potentially be made available for use by the Office of the General … [Read more...]
PC(USA) using technology to expand translation services; shares strong financials
Global Language Resources of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is moving in new directions – including increased reliance on machine translation services – that should mean more PC(USA) material gets translated into languages other than English, and that translation is done more quickly and possibly in more languages. During a Zoom meeting on Oct. 29, Manager of Global Languages Resources Jason Raff told the board of the PC(USA), A Corporation that “there’s a lot of demand for translation” in the denomination, “and that’s a good thing.” But the growing demand for translation services, along with the recognition that having material available in multiple languages is an equity issue, creates challenges, Raff said. With a small staff of linguists, the increased demand has meant that some translation projects either got delayed or outsourced to contract translators at “premium cost,” Raff told the board. So Global Language Services is moving in a new direction with increased … [Read more...]
Presbyterian Mission Agency Board votes on new guiding statements, learns about microaggressions
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted Oct. 7 to take the first steps towards implementing a plan that is expected to transform how the Presbyterian Mission Agency does its work — a plan calling the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to live into its commitment to be a Matthew 25 church in new, decentralized ways. That comprehensive restructuring plan, shaped by a year-long Vision Implementation Process led by CounterStories Consulting, calls for the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) to change its structure and the way it allocates resources — with many employees assigned to “locally situated action teams” (known as LSATs), working within specific communities or regions to confront concerns such as systemic poverty and racism. The consultants’ report calls for creating two new offices in PMA: one focused on innovation, and another on reparations and repairing harm to communities of color. And it recommends, as much as possible, finding more flexible ways to spend … [Read more...]
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