RICHMOND, June 3 - Early Saturday morning, the 216th General Assembly voted to urge Presbyterians to contribute more for the international fight against AIDS and to oppose new government restrictions that may impede relationships between the U.S. church and Cuban Presbyterians.
The Assembly voted down an overture that would have earmarked one-quarter of the annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering to the battle against HIV/AIDS in Africa, opting instead to promote extra giving opportunities in support of prevention and treatment programs.
The Rev. Gary Cook, director of the PC(USA) Hunger Program, had said that a redirection of money from the offering would hurt three other PC(USA) ministries - hunger and disaster assistance efforts and the Self-Development of People program.
Cook said the extra commitment opportunity (ECO) accounts have directed $300,000 into the anti-AIDS effort in the past five months.
The Assembly also voted to call on the U.S. Treasury Department to rescind tighter restrictions on travel to Cuba and on economic relations with the island nation imposed recently by the Bush administration. The new rules restrict family visits to one every three years and could limit contact between Presbyterians there and in the United States. A commissioner from Miami opposed the action, contending that loosening the rules would only put money in the pocket of Cuba's premier, Fidel Castro, and "perpetuate his being there."
In other actions, the Assembly voted to commission PC(USA) missionaries next year during the 100th New Wilmington Missionary Conference in July since there will be no Assembly; to oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on the grounds that it undercuts poor indigenous farmers by dumping subsidized U.S. food products into Central American markets; receive the 2003-2004 Human Rights Update and urge the stated clerk to publish it on the PC(USA) Web site with a related study guide for churches; and to disapprove an overture on population control because it did not address underlying inequities in access to land and food and was not sufficiently sensitive to differing cultural attitudes about appropriate family size. |
