LOUISVILLE — The
General Assembly will be asked to approve nine proposed amendments
to the Book of Order intended to strengthen the church’s
policies and procedures for dealing with sexual-abuse cases.
The General Assembly Council (GAC) approved the suggested changes
during a meeting last month, and will recommend that commissioners
to the upcoming 216th General Assembly send them to the presbyteries
for ratification.
A three-member panel is looking into allegations that children
of Presbyterian Church (USA) missionary workers were physically
or sexually abused in church-run boarding schools in Cameroon
and Ethiopia between the 1940s and the 1970s.
The allegations being investigated by the Independent Abuse
Review Panel (IARP) surfaced during an earlier inquiry that found
that more than two dozen children of missionary parents in the
Congo had been physically or sexually abused there between the
1940s and the 1980s.
In its 2002 report, the Congo panel, known as the Independent
Committee of Inquiry (ICI), proposed 30 corrective measures, most
of which have been implemented by denominational entities over
the past 18 months.
“The church has a sacred responsibility to do everything
we can,” said the Rev. Paul Masquelier of San Jose, CA,
chair of the work group charged with implementing the ICI’s
recommendations.
The suggested amendments include:
- An addition to G-11.0103o giving presbyteries authority to
modify pastoral relationships, including leaves of absence and
administrative leaves. Now, Masquelier said, “presbyteries
can approve or dissolve calls, but nothing in between.”
- A related new section of G-14.0506b(4) to provide for leave
of absence and administrative leave options in pastoral calls.
- Additions to d-1.0101 giving survivors and accusers of abuse
the right to participate in disciplinary cases. Now, Masquelier
said, “disciplinary cases are a matter of the presbytery
versus the accused — this change will recognize that all
those affected by abuse are participants in the disciplinary
process.”
- Changes to D-11.0403e to permit survivors to testify about
the consequences of abuse after the accused has been found guilty.
- Changes in D-13.0000 to give presbyteries the right to appeal
a first-level verdict in an abuse case, but only on technical
grounds. Currently, Masquelier said, only the accused has the
right of first-level appeal.
- A new section G-9.0503 to provide for “pastoral inquiries”
in cases where the accused dies or renounces the church’s
jurisdiction before a judicial proceeding is concluded. “We’ve
experienced this ourselves,” Masquelier said, referring
to the Pruitt case. “If the purpose is to find the truth
and restore survivors to wholeness, then the process must proceed
to closure.”
- Additions to D-10.0000 to ensure that accusers and survivors
are fully informed about the disciplinary process and have the
service of “advocates” to help them through it.
Church law already provides this advocacy function for persons
accused of abuse.
- New sections D-12.0103d and D-12.0104c to include “voluntary
acts of restitution as a form of repentance” as part of
the rehabilitation program for convicted abusers. “The
goal of church discipline is to make everyone whole again,”
Masquelier said. “This allows for voluntary acts of restitution,
which are meant to facilitate restoration and healing.”
- A new section G-10.0202g(3) requiring a full reporting of
the facts in abuse cases in which alternative forms of resolution
are employed, as for example when the parties reach an agreement
before trial. “In many cases of alternative resolution,
files are sealed and forms of discipline are not reported,”
Masquelier said, “and so the truth is never known. Think
of the damage done to the Catholic Church. This amendment says
in no uncertain terms, ‘There will be no secrets.’”
- A new section D-12.0105e removing the word “honorably”
as a description of a retired minister who is removed from the
office of Minister of Word and Sacrament because of sexual abuse.
“Loss of the use of the term ‘honorably’ …
is a symbolic act that expresses the church’s assessment
of the serious nature of the offense,” Masquelier said.
- New sections (and renumberings of sections) in G-6.0204, G-6.0304
and G-6.0402 to require all church officers — ministers,
elders and deacons — to report information about the abuse
of a child or of an adult of diminished mental capacity to civil
authorities unless confidentiality laws prevent it. Masquelier
called for “a standard of practice within our church that
is weighted toward a principle of protecting children from sexual
abuse, in contrast to a principle of preserving confidentiality.”
The members of the IARP panel investigating the Cameroon and
Ethiopia allegations are Ann Thomas of Dallas, TX; Lois Edmund
of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; and Nancy Poling of Evanston, IL.
Thomas, who recently retired from a career in health policy and
social work, has special expertise in child and adult guardianships,
and extensive experience with abused adolescents. Edmund, a psychologist
and the daughter of missionaries, was a member of the ICI and
several other committees investigating abuse of missionaries’
children; she teaches conflict resolution at the University of
Winnipeg. Poling, who also served on the ICI, is an academic tutor
at Kendall College and a freelance writer and editor. She is the
editor of the book, Victim to Survivor: Women Recovering from
Clergy Sexual Abuse.
Anyone with information about abuse is encouraged to write to
the panel at IARP, Box 195, 908 Audelia Road, Suite 200, Richardson,
TX 75081, or call the PC(USA)’s toll-free abuse hotline:
(888) 728-7228, ext. 5207.
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