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Advisory Committee
on Social Witness Policy

Economic and Peace studies seeking volunteers
[11-6-10]

We have received this notice from the members and staff of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy.

The General Assembly has authorized two new studies that will involve the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). One is about the economic crisis and the other is about the peacemaking witness. We are providing links to brief prospectuses (work outlines) and nomination forms for those who want to be considered for work on these issues. Along with paid and volunteer consultant writers, the ACSWP and its predecessors have depended upon dedicated church members with particular expertise in the areas under consideration to serve on teams that define the work, contribute to it, and evaluate its adequacy. This letter is to invite your consideration of service on one of the two studies.

The first study, Living Through Economic Crisis, builds upon the Social Involvement Report by that name which is to be distributed to “each congregation in the denomination.” That eight-page statement is an excellent call-to-action-and-reflection on our current demoralizing recession, and it provided the rationale for the Assembly to authorize a new study. Although this study is for a resolution and not a new full policy, we post a brief prospectus outlining the work to be done and knowledge needed. There is also a volunteer form. The prospectus lists the previous policy statements that provide a basis for the new assessment of “economic trends and practices, including their impact on the church itself.” In this case the focus is partly on “long term developments,” as structural problems are not likely to be solved easily even if employment picks up. The goal is to prepare a report in time for the next General Assembly.

The second project is a peacemaking discernment process designed to provide both new thinking and a new range of practical applications to the church’s peace witness. It may even lead to a re-orientation of our corporate conscience — part of the discernment is not to know all the outcomes. Thus, while there will be consultations to invite participation from peace and international affairs people in the colleges, universities and seminaries with an eye to updating policies, there will also be resources and ways for congregations and individuals across the church to reflect on their own peace engagement.

An initial assessment of “Peacemaking: The Believers’ Calling” (1980), for example, suggests that its policy core remains valuable but that the nine areas surveyed in its background study all have changed since that Cold War period, and that several new concerns would probably be among the top nine challenges to peace. Along with this critical reading of the “signs of the times,” discernment is also a faith guided process involving spiritual disciplines and formation of conscience. A steering team will work with both ACSWP and the Peacemaking Program to design as participatory a process as possible. Again, an initial outline of tasks to be performed is available, building clearly on the Assembly’s action, as is a volunteer nomination form. The form notes that it is not only for the five-person steering team but for other aspects of the process, so if you feel called to participate please note your area of preferred contribution.

Grace and Peace,
ACSWP members and staff

ACSWP reports on its Fall 2009 meeting

Focuses on justice issues in the Southwest and economic values [12-15-09]

By ACSWP associate for policy development and interpretation the Rev. Belinda M. Curry

The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) held its fall meeting in Phoenix October 15-17, 2009. The committee engaged in dialogue with members of the Grand Canyon Presbytery and other invited guests on immigration, energy and Native American concerns. The committee authorized a resolution on the economic crisis and worked with representatives of a General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) Review committee. The Committee heard project updates from members assigned to various study groups and other Committees, including matters of compensation, gun violence, HIV/AIDS and public education. In addition the Committee spent some quality time during its fall meeting reflecting on the ministry, witness and life of the Reverend Dr. Lewis (Lew) S. Mudge who died on September 11, 2009.

Social concerns in the region included immigration concerns, energy issues, Native American matters. Among the national and denominational concerns were the new Social Creed for the 21^st Century, and updates on current study projects including a theology of compensation, gun violence, HIV/AIDS, and public education. The ACSWP group also met two members of the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC)’s Review Committee on the advisory and advocacy committees.

For the full article >>

Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy sends new E-MEMO UPDATE
[5-27-07]

ACSWP is broadening its e-mailing list, and will be sending update notes on its work "several times a year." According to the Rev. Dr. Chris Iosso, Coordinator of the Advisory Committee, "We also welcome suggestions of topics or notice of developments [of] which reflective social justice practitioners should be apprised. We plan to communicate as well with past Church & Society Magazine subscribers on new ways to communicate the ethics work and thinking of the church."

This first memo includes notes on ACSWP’s report to GAC; current work on the new Social Creed; the Ghost Ranch Week for Peace and Justice; globalization; Iraq; the planned fall consultation on Peacemaking, Religion, Violence and Terrorism; environmental concerns; and energy.

To join this e-list, send a blank e-mail message to acswp-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

For more on the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, go to http://www.pcusa.org/acswp/

ACSWP REPORT TO GAC

Summary of the Advisory Committee's work, prepared for the General Assembly Council in March 7, 2007.

SOCIAL CREED

The proposed Social Creed for the 21st Century and its two page backgrounder have been received by the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches of Christ for study and discussion. We also link to the 1908 "original" Social Creed (which was accepted by many communions and revised many times, most frequently by the United Methodists). If you walk through the door of the United Methodist Building in Washington, DC, where most of the mainline church offices are, you will see a version of the Social Creed on either side of the inner portal. This text is still open to revision and is being discussed among the member communions of the National Council.

GHOST RANCH WEEK FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

In terms of events, we wish to draw your attention to the Ghost Ranch Week for Peace & Justice, July 28-August 4, at which ACSWP Coordinator Chris Iosso is scheduled to speak. The "headliners" of the gathering include Roberto Jordan, an Argentine church leader active in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), and Larry Rasmussen, the Grawemeyer Award-winning ecological theologian and ethicist.

GLOBALIZATION

The subject matter of Globalization is wide, but a key emphasis in the Presbyterian and ecumenical documents of WARC and the World Council of Churches is commitment to a sustainable economics that closes the great divide between rich and poor within and among nations. (See the WCC's AGAPE )

ACSWP is gathering different perspectives on globalization to produce a study guide for the "Just Globalization" policy adopted at the last General Assembly. ACSWP will also have a role in promoting responses to the WARC and WCC statements, which are both strong cries from churches worldwide for an end to economic and military domination.

IRAQ

Clearly the Iraq War looms large in our hearts and on the world stage. The world may be, as Calvin said, the theatre of God's glory, but we are having very tragic scenes in much of the Middle East. The Advisory Committee will be considering responses to the public debate, to calls from our ecumenical partners overseas, and to our own ethical analysis of responsibilities going forward. Many readers may know that the Assembly policy presented in 2004, terming the Iraq war "unwise, immoral and illegal," was one of many church statements that saw this tragic misadventure for what it was, even if the full scope of callousness, corruption and incompetence could not be foreseen. Any statement by ACSWP will not simply present learnings from this war, but recommendations for its wisest conclusion.

PEACEMAKING, RELIGION, VIOLENCE, TERRORISM

We are at this time revising previous plans concerning the annual Stony Point Consultation on peacemaking, religion, violence and terrorism. This event was originally designed to work with policies of the General Assembly and to help the Advisory Committee develop responses to new events-such as the 9/11 tragedy. This consultation is usually scheduled to coincide loosely with the anniversary of that event in early September. STAY TUNED FOR NEWS ON THAT!

ENVIRONMENT

Despite the bad news of the war, and the continuing suffering in Darfur and Palestine/Israel, there is a dimension of the Global Climate Change story that brings hope. Despite extensive efforts to suppress and distort the truth of the science of global warming, this last year has seen a growing awareness that we face a global challenge that overshadows all others. This market externality – really a most spectacular market failure-abetted by parts of the US government – is now a bullet that cannot be dodged. Again the Church's support for the Kyoto protocol (three times) and other basic preventive measures helps us see the bravery of whistle-blowing scientists like James Hansen in starker perspective against "hard path" energy interests in control of national policy. It is indeed unfortunate that the US auto industry believed in the energy industry's denial that green technologies were needed; combined with oil price rises caused in part by our "state of denial" in Iraq, our companies did not make the energy efficient vehicles now growing in popularity among a wiser populace.

ENERGY

We salute the Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC) for their steadfastness on environmental stewardship. ACSWP will be bringing a far-sighted energy policy to the General Assembly, building on the paper on carbon neutrality posted on ACSWP's website. There we note the newsletter email sites of other parts of the social justice family in the PCUSA, and encourage you to check them out as well.

Blessings, grace & peace,

Chis Iosso for ACSWP

Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, KY 40202

Visit us on the web at http://www.pcusa.org/acswp/