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Divestment Debate Broadens, Deepens

Much of the conflict involving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its policy involving Israel and divestment is being played out on the big stage -- at the national and even international levels.

But PC(USA) leaders are being reminded that decisions the denomination has made nationally are having repercussions too in local communities, for local churches.

"This Sunday we will have a squad car in front of the church I serve in Forest Hills," Charles Brewster, pastor of Forest Hills Presbyterian in the New York City area, said recently during the moderator's conference in Louisville -- a gathering of presbytery moderators and other regional leaders from around the country. Brewster, the moderator of New York City presbytery, was voicing concern about an anonymous letter threatening violence at Presbyterian churches in protest over the PC(USA)'s plan to consider selective, phased divestment involving some companies doing business in Israel. That letter was mailed from Queens, not far from Brewster's church, "and we take the threat very seriously and we are all frightened," he said.

Florence Henderson, an elder and the vice-moderator of Baltimore presbytery, said Presbyterians there have been "bombarded" with questions about "what has happened, why has it happened?"

Susan Wittjen, an elder and moderator of New Covenant presbytery, said Presbyterian and Jewish leaders in Texas have been discussing their discomfort with a recent trip the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy made to the Middle East -- a fact-finding tour that included a controversial meeting on Oct. 17 with Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon. Jewish leaders were unhappy about the Hezbollah meeting, and wanted more publicity for a letter that top PC(USA) leaders -- John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's stated clerk, and Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216^th General Assembly -- issued calling that meeting "misguided, at best" (see OUTLOOK, Nov. 15 issue, p.7.)

16 amendments proposed to the Constitution from the 216th G.A.

The 216^th General Assembly (2004) has sent sixteen proposed amendments to the Book of Order to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes. Presbyteries may place some or all amendments in a consent agenda or omnibus motion following the instructions in the amendments booklet. Amendments 04-B.1 and 04-B.2 may be voted on as amendment B and amendments 04-E.1a through 04-E.9 may be voted on as amendment E, but presbyteries should follow the instructions for reporting votes.

Brief pro and con arguments are given for each proposed amendment.

Six criteria recommended for divestment decisions

A committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced six criteria it says the church should use in deciding whether to divest in certain multinational companies doing business in Israel.

The PC(USA)'s Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee, meeting Nov. 4-6 in New York, drafted six criteria to guide the denomination in its divestment decisions, while emphasizing that any decisions will be made in a careful, deliberate way. The PC(USA) holds more than $7.5 billion in investments through the Presbyterian Foundation and the Board of Pensions, and the earliest any stock could be sold as a deliberate divestment action would be after the next General Assembly meets in 2006.

The question of whether the PC(USA) should divest in companies active in Israel, in protest over Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people -- or whether such a proposal is anti-Semitic or a bad idea, as some have contended -- has been white-hot since the General Assembly authorized a process of phased, selective divestment by a 431-62 vote last June.

Judicial Commission rules on per capita pledge question

A presbytery cannot require a congregation to pay all of its per capita or to fulfill a mission pledge in order to receive financial assistance from the presbytery, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled.

The ruling helps answer the ongoing question of what presbyteries can do -- or not do -- when congregations refuse to pay all or part of their per capita assessments, often to protest positions taken by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And it affirms a decision issued last April by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Mid-America.

The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the PC(USA)'s highest court, had earlier ruled, in July 2003 in the Minihan v. Scioto Valley Presbytery case, that a presbytery can't force a session to pay per capita, the per-member assessment that the General Assembly sets, and it can't punish a session for failing to pay per capita. While paying per capita is not mandatory, in a connectional system it is strongly encouraged, the judicial commission ruled in that case, stating that withholding funds "as a mean of protest or dissent" is "a serious breach of the trust and love with which our Lord Jesus intends the covenant community to function."

Presbyterian churches and the “M” word: Giving with gratitude

It's the sermon pastors hate to preach, the ones congregations hate even more to hear.

 It usually comes in the fall, and it's when they ask, cajole, even plead for  ... money

And, theologically, it's all about God, our relationship with money, and thanksgiving.

"Gratitude is at the heart of our spirituality in the Reformed tradition," Tim Hart-Andersen, pastor of Westminster church in Minneapolis, preached last spring at a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathering on stewardship. "There is no other human response to God more basic than gratitude, a deep thanksgiving that wells up from within . . . Our churches and those who inhabit them need such a rekindling of biblical stewardship, where we learn again what once we knew so well: `The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.' " (Psalm 24:1)

GAPJC rules in Heartland Presbytery case

(PNS) The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has ruled that a session's failure to pay its per capita apportionment cannot be the sole factor in the presbytery's determination whether that congregation is eligible for requesting financial assistance from the presbytery.

In it's Oct. 18 decision in Johnston, et. al. v. Heartland Presbytery, the commission also ruled that a congregation's failure to pay its per capita apportionment and mission pledge could not be the determinative factor in a presbytery's refusal to grant assistance to that congregation. At the same time, the GAPJC determined that "a congregation's effort to pay its full per capita apportionment and to fulfill a mission pledge is clearly relevant as one factor among many others that a presbytery may consider in exercising its stewardship responsibility to allocate limited resources in action upon a congregation's request for assistance."

Two staffers gone in wake of Hezbollah meeting

LOUISVILLE - Two key Presbyterian Church (USA) staff members were apparently fired November 11 by General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Director John Detterick - with no clear public explanation for their departures.

Kathy Lueckert, the deputy executive associate director of the GAC, the governing body of the church's mission program agency, and the Rev. Peter Sulyok, coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), are no longer employed by the GAC.

Leuckert has served the denomination for five years, Sulyok for nearly twelve.

Lueckert supervised Sulyok and both were members of an ACSWP fact-finding delegation to the Middle East last month that included a televised meeting with Hezbollah, an organization that is on the U.S. government's watch list of terrorist groups.