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LOUISVILLE—The Souper Bowl of Caring became an item of discussion before the General Assembly Council (GAC) when the Congregational Ministries Division Committee (CMDC) recommended that it not be given a special emphasis on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006, in the Planning Calendar.
The Souper Bowl of Caring is a program supported by youth groups across the country and even in other nations in which church members who plan to watch the Super Bowl on TV are asked to put a dollar in a soup pot as they leave church.
The funds are used to support local hunger relief programs, and the amount raised is reported to the Souper Bowl of Caring office. The program originated at the Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC.
GAC member Dan Schomer from Columbiana, Ohio, Eastminster Presbytery, asked why it was not being included, and he was told by a member of the committee that it was so as not to elevate a national sporting event to the level of a programmatic emphasis of the church.
Schomer then offered an amendment, which would elevate the Souper Bowl of Caring to programmatic emphasis and include it in the Planning Calendar.
John Bolt of Charleston, WV, and a member of CMDC, spoke against it, although he said he had stuffed many dollars into pots on Souper Bowl Sundays. “This is a matter of relativity,” he said. “Is this at the level of Father’s Day, and Celebrating the Gifts of Women, and Race Relations Sunday?”
That is the question, not the quality of the program, he said.
Susan Andrews, former moderator of the General Assembly, spoke in favor of including it. She said conservative and liberal congregations alike support Souper Bowl Sunday. “This is one of the places where we come together. I speak in favor of the amendment,” she said.
The amendment was approved and the Souper Bowl of Caring was elevated to programmatic emphasis on Feb. 5. |
