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VOW |
Voices
of Orthodox
Women
A LOCAL PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN'S GROUP IS UNSUCCESSFUL IN OBTAINING INFORMATION FROM THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN by
I am submitting this information as the Moderator for the Women of Benton Heights Presbyterian Church in Monroe, N.C. In 2004, after becoming discouraged with the Horizons Bible Study literature, our Coordinating Team (“CT”) began looking into new literature for our circle groups. In further research, we became aware of the fact that some of the money we give to Presbyterian Women (“PW”) was going to support organizations or causes we did not approve of. We took an interest in Voices of Orthodox Women’s informative website and some of our women attended a meeting at Siler Presbyterian Church here in Monroe hosting Sylvia Dooling from VOW. We decided to host our own meeting in August for our church and other churches in surrounding clusters on the liberal direction our PW literature was taking. We invited Reverend Pinky Bender as our guest speaker. We had 13 churches represented and over 90 women in attendance, so I know there is an interest in what is happening in our denomination. In an effort to be better stewards of our gifts and not just walk away from PW, our CT elected to start asking questions and stop sending our money until we were satisfied that we were honoring God by doing so. We did not want to continue to give blindly without holding PW financially accountable for how our gifts are being used. We are sharing this information with others now so that you can benefit from our findings and hopefully improve communications between the denomination and local organizations! We are asking honest questions of those who are employees of the PCUSA and we are determined to keep asking. What follows are my correspondence with Ann Ferguson, PW Program Coordinator, since October 24, 2004. (Note: Before
releasing the following correspondence to VOW for publication in their
newsletter, and posting on their website, I obtained the permission of
our Coordinating Team, and our Church Session, in turn. Each
of these bodies voted unanimously to release this correspondence to VOW
for publication.)
MY E-MAIL OF 10/24/04 TO FANNYE BELT Mrs. Fannye Belt
Dear Fannye: I am the Moderator of the Women of Benton Heights Presbyterian Church in Monroe, N.C., and I currently chair a team charged with investigating how contributions to specific funds associated with the PCUSA PW are being awarded and used. Our Coordinating Team has elected to withhold further contributions to the Thank Offering and Least Coin until we receive Mission Statements from each of the organizations chosen to receive these grants. Specifically, we want to know how each of the recipients is chosen, and how the money allocated to each is to be used. A couple of weeks ago I contacted our local PW Treasurer requesting information on how our contributions are being used. The material that I received consisted of excerpts from Horizons; this information is vague at best. We routinely require Mission Statements for the local mission agencies that we support, and are now requiring the same of the PCUSA PW funds that we support. We are also requesting Mission Statements from Ann Ferguson, Program Coordinator, regarding the Birthday Offering. We want to make sure that our mission money is being used to build up the Church of Jesus Christ and support Biblical values. Given that the Thank Offering is collected in November, we would like to see Mission Statements for the recipients of these grants no later than November 15th, 2004, so we can review them at our November 17th meeting. If we do not receive the information requested by that date, we will have to withhold our donation until we do receive it. Please send the Mission Statements for the recipients of the 2004 Fellowship of the Least Coin grants as soon as it is available. Please send this information to me at the address below. I am following this e-mail up with a copy sent Certified Mail to insure that you receive it. Thank you in advance for your prompt assistance in this matter. Sandy Huneycutt
MY CERTIFIED LETTER OF 10/25/04 TO ANN FERGUSON BENTON HEIGHTS
October 25, 2004 Mrs. Ann Ferguson
RE: PW Birthday Offering Dear Ann: I am the Moderator of the Women of Benton Heights Presbyterian Church in Monroe, N.C., and I currently chair a team charged with investigating how contributions to specific funds associated with the PCUSA PW are being awarded and used. Our Coordinating Team has elected to withhold further contributions to the Birthday Offering until we receive Mission Statements from each of the organizations chosen to receive this grant. Specifically, we want to know how each of the recipients is chosen, and how the money allocated to each is to be used. A couple of weeks ago I contacted our local PW Treasurer requesting information on how our contributions are being used. The material that I received consisted of excerpts from Horizons; this information was vague at best. As an example, Camp Luminaria, Santa Fe, New Mexico is described as a “faith-based” program. We would like to receive their Mission Statement so we can examine what “faith” they are talking about, and what type of faith-based programs they are administering. We routinely require Mission Statements for the local mission agencies that we support, and are now requiring the same of the PCUSA PW funds that we support. We are also requesting Mission Statements from Fannye Belt, Mission Interpretation, regarding the Thank Offering and the Least Coin contribution. We want to make sure that our mission money is being used to build up the Church of Jesus Christ and support Biblical values. Given our contribution to the 2004 Birthday Offering in May, we would like to see Mission Statements for the five recipients of the 2004 offering, as well as Mission Statements from the recipients of the 2005 offering as soon as that information becomes available. Please send the requested information to me at the address below. Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. Sincerely, Sandy Huneycutt
ANN FERGUSON'S E-MAIL RESPONSE OF 10/25/04 Dear Sandy, Fannye is on short term disability leave at the moment and I am handling
I appreciate your careful consideration for the use of funds. The Fellowship of the Least Coin grant recipients are selected by the
The Fellowship of the Least Coin is not for fund raising. It is a symbolic
The Thank Offering recipients are selected after the offering is
The Thank Offering and the Birthday Offering are different in this aspect.
You will be interested to know that the committee will discuss adding
a
One more thing I must mention to you which I am sure you are aware is
part
Ann Ann Ferguson
MY E-MAIL OF 11/01/04 TO ANN FERGUSON Dear Ann: Thank you for responding to our request. We eagerly await your reports on each of these meetings. I would like to reiterate our need for any Mission and/or Purpose Statements available for the 2004 recipients of the Birthday Offering grants, as well as the recipients of the 2003 Thank Offering and Least Coin grants. All of this information will be used by our Coordinating Team committee to determine further contributions to these funds. I spent some time pondering your closing. In reference to your statement regarding our fiduciary responsibility, we have given our money unquestioningly for many years now trusting its use to the PCUSA-PW. We fully understand our responsibility to be good stewards of God's blessings which is precisely why we are asking for more detailed information from PW. Just to say that it is being used for the purposes for which it was intended is not financial accountability on the part of PW. PW's side of this fiduciary responsibility is to make sure that they do "select projects that are consistent with the mission and purpose of the Presbyterian Church (USA)", thus allowing us to have the "trust and assurance" we so desire. That is what we are asking for. By recommending that both Mission and Purpose statements be provided, the committee is moving in a positive direction. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Sandy Huneycutt
MY E-MAIL OF 11/10/04 TO ANN FERGUSON Dear Ann: I'm just following up on my e-mail to you of November 1st. I realize you have been out of town with these recent meetings, however, I need to know if I can expect any reports from you before our Coordinating Team meets next Wednesday, November 17th. Please let me know and, as always, I appreciate your help in this regard! Sandy Huneycutt
MY E-MAIL OF 11/30/04 TO ANN FERGUSON Dear Ann: Attached hereto please find my letters to you of November 1st and 10th. We are still waiting to hear from you. I realize that you may have been out of town and wanted to make sure that you have received/read these previous e-mails. Our Coordinating Team did meet as stated on November 17th, and they decided not to send our Thank Offering at this time since we haven't had any answers to our questions as of yet. If you could please respond to what you can in these letters, we would greatly appreciate it and we will then decide where to go from here. We do not desire to hold back our offerings but some of the sentiment of our women is that we are not important enough to PW to warrant answers to our concerns! You also said you were going to observe/attend the meetings of the Least Coin Committee and the Birthday Offering Committee in your e-mail of October 27th, and report back to me. I am very interested to hear how these went and how the process works so I can in turn report back to our women. On another note, our Coordinating Team would also like to know if our women are allowed to designate the Mission Pledge funds which are sent in each year to a mission of our choosing. Can you please address this? Our CT waits to hear from you soon. Thank you! Sandy Huneycutt
MY CERTIFIED LETTER OF 12/08/04 TO ANN FERGUSON BENTON HEIGHTS
December 8, 2004 Mrs. Ann Ferguson
RE: PW Mission Offerings Dear Ann: Attached please find copies of my communications to you over the last
two months. Our Presbyterian Women Coordinating Team is still waiting
for a response from you.
Sincerely,
Sandy Huneycutt
Sent via Certified Mail -
ANN’S E-MAIL OF 1/03/05 Sandy, I think you've sent me a certified letter that I haven't received yet.
The
The package is scheduled for return to sender tomorrow - 1/4. I called
the
I will let you know if I'm successful in retrieving the package. And while I'm writing to you, the Creative Ministries Offering Committee
Ann
MY E-MAIL OF 1/03/05 Ann,
ANN’S E-MAIL OF 1/04/05 Hi, Sandy. Well, the letter was not at the post office branch on the delivery
I'll let you know when it is in my hands. Ann
MY E-MAIL OF 1/05/05 Ann, I hope you were able to retrieve my letter today. However, if it has already been returned to me, I have copied everything that was enclosed in that mailing in a document which I attached to this e-mail for you, perhaps this will save us some time. We would ask that you please review all of our questions/requests and send us all the information you can. This is very important to our women for 2005! I am glad to hear that the Creative Ministries committee has chosen to start asking for Mission Statements as well as Purpose Statements. This is encouraging news for all concerned women! Does this apply to the 2005 Birthday Offering recipients which were chosen at the end of October or first of November, 2004? If so, could you please send us copies of their Mission Statements and Purpose Statements? Our women will want to see these before our offering is collected in May. Thank you!
ANN’S E-MAIL OF 1/06/05 Sandy
As for the mission statements, I have two of the project mission
Ann MY E-MAIL TO ANN (W/COPY TO FANNYE BELT) OF 2/08/05 Dear Ann, Well it has been another month and we haven't heard back from you. Our Coordinating Team is meeting again tonight and I will tell them we are still waiting for your report. We will be considering sharing our questions and any answers you have given us with other Presbyterian Women through Voices of Orthodox Women's website and newsletter in March. If you can send us anything by February 25th, at the latest, it can be included. That date will be four months from our first letter of inquiry to PW! Thanks for your assistance in this regard. Sandy Huneycutt
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