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LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council (GAC) approved action Saturday supporting military personnel and their families.
The action calls for developing a pastoral letter on how the church can care for veterans and a resolution supporting active and reserve military personnel and their families.
The move was part of recommendations made by the National Ministries Division Committee (NMDC) during a regular GAC meeting here.
“While we as a committee certainly recognize different points of view concerning our current military engagements, we nevertheless acknowledge our pastoral responsibility toward those who are in military service,” said Allison Seed, NMDC’s chair.
The GAC will petition the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and/or the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) for a “quick response” in developing the pastoral letter.
It calls on the Presbyterian Council of Chaplains and Military Personnel (PCCMP) to develop suggestions on how to care for returning veterans and their families while gathering the best practices from presbyteries to share with the church and encouraging compassionate ministry by churches to military personnel and their families.
The General Assembly Council partners with the PCCMP through the National Ministries Division Committee.
The action also empowers NMDC to conduct a worship service for the GAC at its March 2005 meeting to recognize the new Military and Veteran Administration (VA) Chaplains.
The resolution charges the GAC to “encourage compassionate ministry by our churches to military personnel and their families as they endure long family separations and the risk of injury or death in war, and with determination to embrace in ministry those who answer our nation’s call to military service.”
Ken Newbold, an NMDC member from the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina, said motivation for the action was inspired by the warm welcome U.S. troops received after returning from World War II and the Korean War.
“But veterans of Vietnam did not receive such a similar reception by our local churches and communities in America,” said Newbold, who chairs NMDC’s Leadership subcommittee. “Therefore what we’re trying to do is be proactive in this action to make sure that when (military personnel) from Afghanistan, from Iraq or wherever in the world they’re serving, come home they’ll be well received.”
In other business, the GAC:
- Received information from the NMDC about the Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee’s process for responding to action by the PC(USA)’s 216th General Assembly instructing MRTI to “initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations doing business in Israel, in accordance with General Assembly policy on social investing ...”
- Approved establishment of the Racial Ethnic Educational Support Work Group, authorizing the chair of NMDC to make appointments to the work group, which will have two objectives: To review the value of giving exclusive support to historically related racial-ethnic schools and colleges without providing support for other related institutions with significant racial-ethnic enrollment. And to evaluate the value of providing “less for the greater number of institutions” versus “more for a lesser number of institutions” in the allocation of funds from the Christmas Joy Offering. The action was in response to a referral from last summer’s 216th General Assembly of the PC(USA).
- Authorized the MRTI committee to file or co-file shareholder resolutions with pharmaceutical companies on addressing HIV/AIDS globally, particularly in Africa.
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