‘Dear ACSWP’ webinar focuses on GA items of business with a focus on social witness policy

LOUISVILLE — “Dear ACSWP: Advice, Counsel and Social Witness Policy” was the name of a Wednesday webinar offered ahead of the 227^th General Assembly by members and staff of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. More than 60 people attended.

ACSWP’s co-chairs, the Rev. Jeromey Howard and the Rev. Erica Nelson, helped to lead the webinar, designed to educate Presbyterians about items of business before GA commissioners and advisory delegates that are either important to or are the work of the 12-member committee.

Among those items are:

• GEN-09, funding to develop a “Beyond Changing Families: Flourishing Relationships and Belonging” paper that would be “a comprehensive theological, biblical and ethical framework document and study guide that addresses the nature, purpose and gift of flourishing, life-giving relationships.” It would include God’s intentions for human relationships; relationships in marriage and family, the church, the workplace and society in general; questions of respect, accountability, mutuality, consent, dignity, fulfillment and care; and the dynamics of power in human relationship. The paper would continue the work of the 223^rd General Assembly (2018), in its approval of “On Affirming and Celebrating the Full Dignity and Humanity of People of All Gender Identities.”
• RUS-09, “Internal Displacement Recommendations and Rationale,” a response to the request of the 226^th General Assembly (2024) to “advocate for the rights and just treatment of those internally displaced in the U.S., using previously created policies around immigration and human rights, while also developing  official positions for internally displaced persons within the United States and its territories similar to those addressing the concerns of externally displaced persons.” Howard pointed out that several ACSWP recommendations include the formation of writing teams. People interested in contributing their writing talents can send an email to [email protected].
• CLJ-05 is a recommendation and rationale called “Intent, Effect, Haste: Ethical Guidance on Fossil Fuels.” According to the rationale, “Moral questions concerning the production, distribution and use of fossil fuels have become both unavoidably complicated and dramatically pressing. Because the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is called to speak to such questions, it ought to be guided by thoughtful and informed policy. This paper intends to guide such policy.”
• FIN-06 includes recommendations and a rationale on agency pay equity. It would direct Presbyterian Life & Witness “to convene the leadership of all the agencies and entities related to the General Assembly to implement pay equity for executive staff positions, seeking to find a more equal balance of pay across all agencies and entities of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”
• RUS-07 is the social witness policy “Standing Against White Christian Nationalism.” Recommendations include repudiating the ideology and practices of white Christian nationalism in all forms and acknowledging and repenting of the PC(USA)’s “historical complicity” in white Christian nationalism. Dr. Rick Nutt, a member of ACSWP, pointed out that one recommendation urges congregations “to examine national symbols displayed on church property and in worship spaces, national hymns sung in worship, and the propriety of national pride in relationship to the primacy of God in Christian worship.”
• RUS-08 recommends approval of the social witness policy, “The Algorithm and the Almighty: Navigating Artificial Intelligence through a Reformed Lens.” Among the recommendations is the formation of a “Center for the Future” to be housed within the Office of Innovation. Work would be focused on the intersection of the church and new technologies including AI, climate, space exploration, health advancement and other emerging technologies.

“As you go into committee meetings, the work that we’ve done — we turn it over to you all,” Howard said. “It’s not ours anymore. It belongs to the General Assembly. You get to discern what it looks like,” including “do you need to make amendments or send it back to us?”

Watch recordings of GA informational sessions here.