Moderator proposes response to 2004 divestment resolution
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 27, 2006
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – General Assembly Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase, trying to reduce the damage caused by the 2004 General Assembly’s resolution calling for “phased selective divestment” of Presbyterian Church (USA) holdings in corporations doing business with Israel, on Wednesday presented an alternative proposal to the General Assembly Council.
Theological Preamble
The following is Dr. Tom Gillespie’s suggested “Theological Preamble” to Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase’s statement:
The Scriptures which Christians share with their Jewish brothers and sisters lift up God’s gift of peace (shalom) and God’s call for justice (tesedequah). In the New Testament, that gift is actualized in Jesus Christ and that mandate is expanded to include not only the quest for basic fairness in human relationships but the obligation to forgive others as we have been forgiven and be reconciled to one another as we have been reconciled to God. Our Lord’s parable of the so-called Waiting Father (Thielicke) and his two sons, one prodigal and the other graceless, suggests new ethical standards that inform the Church’s apostolic task. Faithful obedience to Christ’s call is ever necessary, never easy, and always risky. For it is not only God that we now see “in a mirror dimly,” but God’s world was well. Yet the vagaries, complexities and uncertainties of the human scene do not excuse us from seeking to discern through the Spirit what God would have us do and say in regard to pressing issues of the times in which we live before God. It is in the pursuit of such discernment that the following proposal is offered to the General Assembly Council.
The council will mull it over before considering whether to bring the statement or a modified version of it to a vote on Friday.
Ufford-Chase wants the council to send the 217th General Assembly, which will meet June 15-22 in Birmingham, a statement that he titled “Proposed comment and advice from the General Assembly Council to the 217th General Assembly (2006) regarding all overtures relating to our witness for peace and expressions of conscience in Israel and Palestine.”
Ufford-Chase’s 1,500-word draft would ask the General Assembly to answer more than two dozen overtures on the 2004 resolution by taking divestment off the table – for the time being. The original resolution has been widely criticized by Jewish groups and Christians who believe that the PCUSA is unfairly singling out Israel for condemnation in its ongoing confrontations with Islamic Palestinians.
The gist of Ufford-Chase’s proposal is that a task force, appointed by himself and the moderator of the 217th General Assembly, begin monitoring the fast-changing events in the Middle East.
That task force would work in conjunction with the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. Ufford-Chase did not take note of the fact that ACSWP helped contribute to the worldwide denunciation of the PCUSA divestment policy by sponsoring a trip to the Middle East and having some of its members meet with terrorist leaders and praise them for their work.
Ufford-Chase also proposed that the General Assembly postpone, until at least 2008, any further action on divestment. The denomination’s Mission Responsibility through Investment Committee has already targeted four companies for divestment – including Caterpillar, because its equipment has been used in clearing the way for a separation barrier between Israelis and Palestinians.
Ufford-Chase was presiding when the 2004 General Assembly debated and voted on the resolution. But he told the General Assembly Council in February that he was neutral on the issue at that time and that it was not a fight of his choosing. During a recent trip to Israel, he said learned he first-hand the great concern Jews and Christians have over the divestment strategy.
He asked for and received the council’s permission to pull together an ad-hoc committee to explore an alternative to the divestment strategy. He said he involved a number of people in drafting his statement, including Dr. Tom Gillespie, retired president of Princeton Seminary. As an adjunct to Ufford-Chase’s statement, Gillespie presented a theological rationale for a less-confrontational approach.
Ufford’s draft is a gentler approach that the proponents of the divestment resolution made during the 216th General Assembly. They denounced Jewish military involvement in Palestinian areas and the construction of a separation barrier designed to prevent radical Islamists from detonating their suicide bombs in public areas where Israeli men, women and children gather.
This week, Ufford-Chase proposed that the council ask the General Assembly to “empower the moderators of the 216th and 217th General Assembly, in close consultation with the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, to create a task force that will:
- a. Carefully monitor ongoing developments of the situation in the Middle East;
- b. Listen intentionally to Presbyterians and our Christian, Jewish, and Muslim friends in the Middle East and the United States;
- c. Develop guidance that honors each of their concerns as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) considers how to move forward on these sensitive issues; and
- d. Report its findings to the 218th General Assembly (2008), in conjunction with the General Assembly Council.”
“The 217th General Assembly (2006) should ensure that the task force be made up of Presbyterians who are committed both to our continuing accompaniment of Palestinian Christians who seek the end of the occupation and to the deepening of our historic and ever-living relationship with our Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers. Any guidance or recommendations on next steps should be forwarded directly to the General Assembly Council for action by September 2007. Policy recommendations should be referred to the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy for its consideration.”
Ufford-Chase’s statement also would encourage the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Foundation and the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee “to explore new or existing alternative investment possibilities that promote peace and strengthen the economies both in Israel and the occupied territories, and to report their findings to the 218th General Assembly (2008). We give this advice in humility, noting the serious fiduciary responsibility of these two partner agencies and seeking genuine partnership as we explore any possibilities cooperatively.”
The leaders of both the Board of Pensions and the Presbyterian Foundation, the principal investment agencies in the denomination, have expressed their opposition to mandated divestments that could reduce revenue that is needed to support mission and cover the health and retirement programs for Presbyterian ministers.