The 220th GA Health Issues Committee has recommended that the Assembly call for “just access” to reproductive health care. The committee also affirmed the GA’s current policy on abortion and problem pregnancy approved in 1992.

The overture on improved reproductive health care access encourages the church “to support full access to reproductive health care for both women and men in both private and public health plans.” The action also affirms the “ability of women and men to make good moral decisions in matters of reproductive health.”

The 220th General Assembly Social Justice Issues Committee concluded its work Tuesday afternoon (July 3), voting to send on to the full Assembly a lengthy list of recommendations covering a wide range of issues.

Committee members reconsidered an overture they had voted to disapprove a day earlier calling for reports on the corporate practices of for-profit prisons in the United States. The Rev. Susan Andrews, executive presbyter of Hudson River Presbytery, thanked the committee for a second opportunity to make the case against for-profit prisons.

The Theological Issues, Institutions, and Christian Education committee concluded their business Tuesday morning by revisiting the list of affiliated colleges and universities. They amended their approval of the list by adding a comment.

By a vote of 25-23-1, the Mission Coordination Committee today (July 3) recommended that the Assembly disapprove wholesale changes to the four special offerings of the PC(USA).

Presbyterian missionaries in Egypt were not afraid of shaking things up, a speaker told those attending the Presbyterian Historical Society Luncheon at the 220th General Assembly on Tuesday (July 3).

Saying that we live in a nation that is “trapped in labeling,” the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, director of the Office of Public Witness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), told those at the Presbyterian Voices for Justice Award Luncheon that “we’ve got to cut out all this foolishness of liberal and conservative and moderate.”

Nelson’s call to “take off the labels and talk,” followed the presentation of the Voices for Justice Andrew Murray Award to Dorothea Murray, 86, widow of the award’s namesake, who has been a longtime advocate for the work of the organization. Murray, a member of the Oxford (Pa.) Presbytery Church, remains an active supporter of social justice causes.

Speaking to an overflow crowd at the OnebyOne Luncheon on Tuesday (July 3) at the 220th General Assembly, Linda Harvey voiced her concerns about the impact that teaching that same-sex marriage is okay will have on the children of America.

“Schools now promote ‘marriage equality’ as social justice equivalent to racial reconciliation,” said Harvey. “We need to get back to Scripture, back to a biblical worldview.”

Presbyterian military chaplains “are envied in the U.S. armed forces because of the support they receive” from the denomination’s Presbyterian Council of Chaplains and Military Personnel (PCCMP), the chief of U.S. Navy Chaplains told a PCCMP-sponsored lunch here today (July 2) during the 220th General Assembly.

“Thanks,” said Rear Admiral Mark Tidd, a member of National Capital Presbytery. “One of the things the PC(USA) does so well is provide support to your chaplains around the world―many of them in harm’s way.”

Standing-room-only attendance at the Collegiate Ministries Luncheon at the 220th General Assembly signaled a growing sense among Presbyterians that their aging and shrinking denomination must reach out more vigorously to college students.

Keynote speakers Emily Chudy and Megan Lecluyse, recent graduates of Princeton Theological Seminary, pointed to a sobering statistic: in 2008 only 8.8 percent of PC(USA) members were between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.

Thunderous applause was heard from those attending the Covenant Network Luncheon on Monday. The reason, this is the first General Assembly since the removal of the constitutional provision banning gays and lesbians from being ordained as teaching elders, ruling elders, or deacons.

As the Rev. Deborah Block, a Covenant Network board member introduced the keynote speaker, she said, “It’s a relief to finally be able to say, ‘Give a round of applause for the Rev. Scott Anderson!’”