Opposing sides continue war of words as Women's Ministries awaits report
By Leslie Scanlon, Outlook Louisville Reporter
For the embattled Women's Ministries program area of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the next few months should bring some crucial decisions and clues about the program's future, including a report from a formal review of its work and the possible appointment of its new permanent leader.
An interim director of Women's Ministries has been named. Jane Parker Huber, who is widely known around the church for her work with Presbyterian Women and in social justice and peacemaking, as well as her hymn writing, started on June 5.
But in the meantime -- the waiting and the lobbying time, until the formal review is submitted -- strong words are being spoken about why Women's Ministries, which critics accuse of being too theologically liberal, has come under such scrutiny.
Barbara Dua, who has departed as leader of Women's Ministries, has characterized the extended review of her unit as "a blatant sign of continuing harassment and violence against women in the PC(USA)." More than 550 Presbyterians, women and men, have signed a statement publicly urging support of Women's Ministries and calling on the church to "demand an end to the demonizing, stereotyping and scapegoating of women in our church."
But Sylvia Dooling, president of Voices of Orthodox Women and one of the leading critics of Women's Ministries, continues to argue that the program area needs to stay "within the boundaries" of Presbyterian theology.
"I love this denomination because it is broad," Dooling said in an interview. "But we have gone beyond broad, especially in this program area."
And she added: "I refuse to have ourselves put in a box that we are the radical right with Voices of Sophia being the radical left. I don't buy into that. These folks are not radical . . . We are people who uphold the Bible and constitutional standards of the Presbyterian church."
While some of the rhetoric is familiar -- critics accusing supporters of Women's Ministries of being "radical feminists," for example, and supporters speaking out against "patriarchal systems" -- not all of the territory is well-trodden.
The General Assembly Council's executive committee voted in April to extend its review of the Women's Ministries program area to give the council's task group an opportunity to look in person at the program area's materials and programming.
The review -- an acceleration of the council's normal program area review procedure -- is the council's response to a 211th General Assembly referral, which was in response to a com-missioner's resolution accusing Women's Ministries of straying from the theology of the Reformed tradition, and asking for a much more extensive investigation.
Three executive committee members -- Joanne Hull, Peter Pizor and Doska Ross -- visited the Women's Ministries offices in Louisville in May and "looked at everything," said Annie Wu King, the program area's coordinator of staff in the synods.
Pizor said the GAC executive committee task group met with the staff of Women's Ministries and the Office of Research Services, which conducted the review released in February. They "looked at every piece of written material that came out of the Women's Ministries program area" and reviewed "a large volume of correspondence" received regarding Women's Ministries.
The task group's report still is being written, but generally "we affirm what they are doing in Women's Ministries," Pizor said. At the same time, the reviewers realize that "as a denomination, women are a majority of our members. They're absolutely essential to us for vitality and growth, and the needs of women have to be taken very seriously."
While the programs of Women's Ministries are "doing what they have to do," Pizor said, as a denomination "we're going to suggest fairly bluntly that we need to be doing more than we're doing." Many people had written saying they support the work of Women's Ministries, he said, but "a significant number of people were deeply troubled" by some of the language used and emphases chosen by Women's Ministries.
"In a denomination of 2-1/2 million members of which a majority are female, what was significant to us are the number of voices that were not party to the conversation," Pizor said. "Those voices need to be heard."
Both sides recognize that this summer's General Assembly could make important statements about the direction of Women's Ministry and that the GAC vote on the review -- just prior to the Assembly -- may reveal how the church's leadership views the arguments of the critics and the merits of the work the program is doing.
Supporters say they know there are strong potential leaders for the Women's Ministries program out in the church. Whether anyone will step forward to lead an agency that's been under such strong attack, however, is another question.
Whether the program is seen as having advocates in high places, or whether it is seen as vulnerable and beleaguered, may play a role in determining the strength of the candidates applying to succeed Dua as Women's Ministries top staff person.
Move Presbyterian Women?
A proposal also has been put forth, albeit one that may be dying, to separate Women's Ministries structurally from a key constituency -- Presbyterian Women, an independent organization with strong grassroots support.
Overture 45, from Salem Presbytery, proposes that Presbyterian Women move from the National Ministries Division of the PC(USA), where Women's Ministries is administered, to the oversight of the Congregational Ministries Division. The overture argues that Presbyterian Women "has always found its vitality and focus in the local congregation" and that the organization Presbyterian Men already falls under the umbrella of Congregational Ministries.
But Presbyterian Women, which estimates it has 300,000 to 350,000 women active in the organization, does not want the change -- its Churchwide Coordinating Team voted earlier this year to oppose the overture.
And the overture raises some interesting questions about the kind of work that women in the Presbyterian church are involved in -- or want to do.
Dooling, for example, argues that Women's Ministries should focus more on the Bible -- that "everything starts with our theology, what we believe about God and the church." She contends that the leaders of Women's Ministries "are very advocacy-oriented," from "homelessness on down the line." But Women's Ministries should be "more than economic justice and every liberal cause you come across," Dooling said. "What are we teaching women and young girls about Jesus Christ?"
Some suggest that Presbyterian Women, with its strong network of Bible study and prayer groups in local churches, does focus more on spirituality and less on the kind of issues that make critics hot. But the leaders of Presbyterian Women also say they are deeply involved in advocacy at the national level and are not just congregational in focus -- and that's not something they're willing to give up.
A grassroots presence
Presbyterian Women has a clear grassroots presence -- in many congregations, women show up week after week to pray and study the Bible together, and are deeply involved in service to both their congregations and their communities.
But leaders also say that "we are much broader than that," because Presbyterian Women also is committed to advocacy -- working on the national level, for example, to fight racism and homelessness, said Carol Hylkema of Dearborn, Mich., Presbyterian Women's vice-moderator for mission relationships.
For many women, the local prayer and Bible study groups are the "foundation," Hylkema said. "Then they act on their faith," with their dollars and time, to "work for justice and peace" on issues that go beyond the boundaries of gender.
"There are women within Presbyterian Women who would say hospitality is the best thing they do, and they will be the first ones to respond to a family in need," bringing food and prayer and support when there's death or illness, Hylkema said. But those same women might also serve food at a shelter for the homeless -- and give time and money to efforts to keep more families from falling into poverty.
It's also not clear how much momentum is behind Overture 45. Molly Morgan, a minister from Reidsville, N.C., had been asked to serve as the overture advocate, but said she's decided not to support the proposal to move Presbyterian Women out of the National Ministries Division.
Presbyterian Women say they were not consulted on Overture 45 before it was presented. A statement from Diana Lim, the organization's churchwide moderator, said the overture "bypasses the consultative process" and would "nullify the right of self-determination for Presbyterian Women." And, in light of the opposition from Presbyterian Women, the group that initially proposed the overture may not "push it this year," Morgan said.
Should they be connected?
But one question that Overture 45 has put on the table is whether Presbyterian Women should be viewed as completely separate from Women's Ministries -- or whether they share common concerns. "The women themselves have chosen to stay where other women's programming is taking place," said Ann Ferguson, coordinator for Presbyterian Women in the National Ministries Division.
"We're the big, middle, moderate body of the church," Hylkema said. Those active in Presbyterian Women are "dedicated to the denomination. They love their church, they care about it, they're really the big middle of it." And staying in Women's Ministries "adds real breadth to the program area."
Other issues involving women also are being brought to this Assembly.
The Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns, for example, is asking that presbyteries collect information on job applications from women ordained to the ministry.
The advisory committee's report states that staff positions to assist women ministers have been eliminated and that, while women are graduating from seminaries in "substantial numbers," some also seem to be leaving the ministry.
"Most women ministers serving in congregations are in staff positions, small solo pastorates, or interim pastorates," the advisory committee reports.
"Most of the solo pastorates are in isolated areas and have conditions that make effective pastoral leadership difficult . . . Anecdotal stories of women ministers tell of substantial difficulty women have in being considered as candidates as pastor of churches of five hundred members or more."
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