by Emily Enders Odom

The vote to reject the suspension of funding was 260 to 233, with 6 abstentions. The Assembly Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations had recommended disapproval of that section of the overture.

The Rev. Drew Smith, a minister commissioner from the Presbytery of South Alabama, agreed with the committee's recommendation, saying: "I do believe that our denomination has in its history and in its previous statements approved this particular kind of congregation, first in Chicago in the '30s, then Los Angeles in the '40s."

Referring to Avodat Yisrael, the Presbyterian Messianic congregation in Philadelphia that became embroiled in controversy last year and prompted the overture, Smith said, "The most recent new-church development in the last several years in Philadelphia was approved, appropriately, by the presbytery, synod, and General Assembly."

The Rev. Susan Andrews, the moderator of last year's Assembly, spoke in favor of the funding suspension. Referring to a meeting she convened in January between PC(USA) and Jewish leaders, she said the Jewish leaders "told us that they expect us to do evangelism as Christians - but this particular form of evangelism was something that saddened and concerned them, because of the lack of clarity of Avodat Yisrael being a Christian congregation and the way in which sacred Jewish rituals and objects are being used in that particular situation."

The Assembly also approved a series of 10 recommendations concerning the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), including a commitment of continued financial support. An amendment that would have required the NCC to answer questions about its financial operations and "partisan politics" was voted down.

The Assembly also approved a proposal to amend the preface of the Book of Confessions to explain the origin of anti-Roman Catholic language in some of the confessions.