Responding to overtures from the presbyteries of Elizabeth and Cincinnati, the 196th General Assembly (1984) adopted a resolution on pornography that mandated the Council on Women and the Church (COWAC) and the General Assembly Mission Board (Office of Women) to "persevere in their work in the areas of pornography and obscenity and the education of the church and society to combat the abusive treatment of women."
Taking action to provide the budget necessary for this study in both 1985 and 1986, the 198th General Assembly (1986) directed the Council on Women and the Church and the Committee on Women’s Concerns …
Since the adoption of Peacemaking the Believers' Calling in 1980-1981 , peacemaking has become increasingly important in the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Research Unit estimates that by 1987, 47 percent of the church’s 11,600 congregations had made a commitment of some kind to the cause of peacemaking through their sessions. Peacemaking committees and committed individuals have been exploring and implementing ways to put those commitments into action. Out of all this interest and activity, questions have inevitably emerged as to the most appropriate peacemaking strategies for individual Christians and for corporate bodies: congregations, presbyteries, synods, and the General Assembly. …
The Task Force on Theological Pluralism was established in 1985 by the Advisory Council on Discipleship and Worship and the Council on Theology and Culture with members appointed by those two councils and the Advisory Council on Church and Society.
The task force grew out of concerns raised within the Committee on Pluralism and Conflict of the Advisory Council on Discipleship and Worship, where regular consultations with special organizations (Chapter IX) consistently raised issues relating to theological diversity within the church. Among these issues were conflicting perspectives on the value of diverse theological positions, the limits of theological diversity …
Christians and Jews live side by side in our pluralistic American society. We engage one another not only in personal and social ways but also at deeper levels where ultimate values are expressed and where a theological understanding of our relationship is required. The confessional documents of the Reformed tradition are largely silent on this matter. Hence this paper has been prepared by the church as a pastoral and teaching document to provide a basis for continuing discussion within the Presbyterian community in the Unted States and to offer guidance for the occasions in which Presbyterians and Jews converse, cooperate, …
We are deeply aware of the concern and pain in the church as expressed in the many overtures from presbyteries which deal with the question of abortion. We are disturbed by abortion which seems to be elected only as a convenience or to ease embarrassment. We affirm that abortion should not be used as a method of birth control.
The rights of the individual conscience with regard to matters of faith and worship and to decisions made within the church are related to the right of voluntary association. The membership of an individual in the church is purely voluntary.
That Holy Scripture is the "rule of faith and life" is a basic principle of the Reformation. This confessional affirmation, in some formulation, is structural element of all the Reformed confessions. It is stated and developed in the introductory chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Therefore, we might be inclined to assume that it represents a focal point of unity, a sign of commonality, among Presbyterians who are heirs of this Reformed tradition.
The Advisory Council on Church and Society was commissioned by the 187th General Assembly (1975) to reassess the concept of peacemaking and the direction of our country's foreign policy in the light of our biblical and confessional faith and a markedly changed situation in the world today. This request of the General Assembly was a product of its times:
-born in part from the United States' defeat in Southeast Asia and the loss of prestige and power in the changing world situation;
-born in part from the unwillingness of the emerging nations to accept the continued domination of the developed …
In its prospectus for study prepared by the Advisory Council on Church and Society and accepted by the task force at its first meeting, the group's purpose was described this way:
1. Identify and evaluate various theological and biblical perspectives on homosexuality, giving attention to specific biblical texts and themes. Give attention to confessional stands and specific attention to the positions taken by the 182nd General Assembly (1970).
2. Survey general studies and research, and assess theories and assumptions about homosexuality in light of biblical and theological perspectives and current understandings about homosexuality in the social and behavioral sciences, in …
Although the wording of the General Assembly's mandate places the matter of the nature of human life prior to that of its value, the temper of our times compels us to begin with the latter. The very list of specific issues cited by the General Assembly represents a widely shared conviction that the value of human life is being questioned, even attacked, from many quarters. We will see that the General Assembly exhibited signal wisdom in yoking the two issues of nature and value together, but it is the matter of the value of human life that needs exposition first. …