Presbyterians Pro-Life

The Women of Faith Awards are a tradition of the Women's Ministries Program Area dating back to 1986. The awards have been given each year at General Assembly during a Women of Faith Breakfast for which Assembly-goers purchase tickets. Recipients in the past have included Mary Ann Lundy, Isabel Wood Rogers, and Freda Gardner, who is currently running for G.A. Moderator. Until this year the awards have been a rather private affair for supporters of the radical feminist agenda and have drawn little attention.

This year, the announcement of the recipients of the award made the news and provoked a strong negative reaction. The reason was that the committee making the determination chose from 59 women recommended to it the three women it regarded, in the words of Barbara Dua, head staff person for Women's Ministries, the cream [who] rose to the top. They were Jane Dempsey Douglas, Letty Russell, and Jane Spahr. Both Letty Russell and Jane Spahr are participants in and public advocates of unrepentant homosexual behavior.

The steering committee of the National Ministries Division (NMD) intervened and reversed the awards. Spokespersons for the selection committee protested that no General Assembly Council (GAC) body had ever before intervened in their process. The GAC executive committee subsequently voted to reinstate the award, and to institute a review of all policies and procedures regarding the full range of awards within the scope of its work.

The Women's Ministries Program Area of NMD will proceed with awards to these three women at their General Assembly breakfast, using the theme On Behalf of Women: Reforming Through the Word. Their intent is to honor the gifts of clergywomen, educators, song-writers, poets, campus ministers, theologians, lay pastors and authors who have witnessed as reformers through the Word.

Jane Spahr serves as a lesbian evangelist, supported by the church in Rochester, NY that was prevented by judicial action from installing her as their pastor.