Category Archives: General Assembly

Moderator Designate Of The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) 2014 General Assembly

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Earlier this month the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) made the announcement that their Moderator Designate for the 2014 General Assembly would be the Rev. Allan Murray.

Rev. Murray resides and worships in Brora and the Brora church was his charge until his retirement last November. He is a second-career pastor having practiced dentistry for 23 years before studying for the ministry at Free Church College and then taking up his first charge in 1988. He served there at Rogart and Scourie until the division and afterwards for a while served at Scourie and Lochinver at the same time as the Brora charge.

He and his wife Maureen have, as the press release says, “five of a family, now mostly spread around the world.”

The press release was picked up by the Storoway Gazette and pretty much printed verbatim. His sermons, leading up to his retirement, are posted on sermonaudio.com.

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly will convene in Edinburgh on 19 May 2014. We wish Rev. Murray the best as he prepares for the Assembly and our prayers for him during the Assembly and his moderatorial year.

Church Of Scotland 2014 Moderator Designate Steps Aside Due To Ill Health

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Today it was announced by the Church of Scotland that due to ill health the Rev. Angus Morrison has decided to step aside as the Moderator Designate for the 2014 General Assembly. In the article from the Kirk the Rev. Morrison is quoted as saying:

“This
has been a very painful decision but deep down I feel it is the right
one. I am undergoing medical treatment and anticipate an operation
ahead. The demanding role of Moderator requires someone to be operating
on all cylinders. I do not have the necessary reserves just now.

“It is with huge regret and reluctance that I make this decision. My
heartfelt prayers will be with all those on whom unexpected burdens now
fall. May God’s guidance, strength and peace be given to each one.”

The article notes that the Committee to Nominate the Moderator will be meeting again and that a new Moderator Designate will likely be announced on Wednesday 2 April. The article also notes “There
is no precedent in living memory for a Moderator-Designate standing
down.”

There is also coverage of the announcement in stv news, The Scotsman and the BBC.

The Principal Clerk of the General Assembly asks the church to remember Rev. Morrison and his family in their prayers and we would add ours as well. Best wishes for good medical care and a speedy recovery and God’s presence with you and your family throughout.

Third Moderator Candidate For PC(USA) 221st GA (2014) — TE Kelly Allen

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This past week saw the endorsement of a third candidate to stand for the Moderator of the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as Mission Presbytery endorsed Teaching Elder Kelly Allen of San Antonio. Rev. Allen has served as pastor of University Presbyterian Church since 2009 having served as the pastor of a United Reformed church in Buckinghamshire, England, and before that the pastor of two churches in Missouri. Her detailed bio on the church web site lists her education including a BA in psychology from Washington University, St. Louis, an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary and a MA in politics and religion from University of Birmingham, England. On that bio page you can also find her Statement of Faith.

At this time she has a range of social media in place including her OnePager basic web page with the dedicated domain name kellyformoderator.com, a Twitter handle (@kellysueallen), and a Kelly Allen for GA Moderator 2014 Facebook page. She also has her regular blog “How I See Things.” And while the basic web page is a good intro to her, by the nature of the web hosting it might change but will not become much more developed. And the RSS feed on the web page is for her regular blog. Right now it appears that the best place to be reading updated thoughts on standing for Moderator will be the Facebook page.

Her tag line is “Hope-filled leadership for today’s church” and on the basic web page she develops this in three areas of “leadership commitments”: 1. A commitment to spiritual practice – the practices in the history of the church that have drawn us closer to God and to one another in communion. 2. A desire to build community among strangers – “our encounters with the ‘other’ reveal much about ourselves” and in meeting others where they are can we see an expression of the Kingdom of God. 3. A willingness to be bold and bodily witnesses to gospel values – how are we as Christians seen and heard in the world around us and who do we partner with to demonstrate the Gospel?

For more of her thoughts there is a three and a half minute video of Rev. Allen on her Facebook page talking about some of these ideas and her thoughts about the call. On a side note, you have to love the strategecially placed PC(USA) logo in stained glass behind her but she does lose style points for the trailing credits which still has the [enter name here] under the credits.

For additional coverage of her announcement there is an article from the Presbyterian Outlook.

And so, we wish Teaching Elder Allen the best as she prepares for the General Assembly meeting and add her name to our prayer list for all the candidates standing for Moderator.

Presbyterian News Headlines For The First Half Of February 2014

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Let me begin today with a bit of the follow-up news to the election of the Moderator for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. First, concerning the successful nominee, the Rev. Dr. Michael Barry:

New Presbyterian Moderator vows to reach out and serve – from Belfast News Letter

Presbyterian moderator says politicians must find way of dealing with past – from The Irish Times

Just a day after his election, new Presbyterian Church Moderator sparks row by telling gay people to stop having sex – from Belfast Telegraph

And the presence of the Rev. Liz Hughes in the final vote, and falling one vote short, has grabbed some significant media attention as well:

Town-born Liz just misses out in historic bid to become Moderator – from Portadown Times

A female Moderator is surely inevitable – from Portadown Times

In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament approved a same-sex marriage bill with corresponding reaction from the various Scottish churches including the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland:

Scotland becomes seventeenth country to approve same-sex marriages – from Reuters

Same-sex marriage vote prompts church concerns – from Daily Record

Churches denounce law that legalizes same-sex marriage in Scotland – from Ecumenical News

Although individual pastors are speaking out in favour of the legislation:

Cambuslang minister goes against own church’s view on same sex marriage – from Daily Record

Also from Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland confirmed they had settled a lawsuit a few months back related to the death of a visiting Peruvian boy almost eight years ago. The lawsuit was brought by the boy’s parents:

Free Church of Scotland settles with crash boy’s parents – from the BBC

Finally, it was also announced that the jewelry – ring and cross – that are the signs of the office of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, have been replaced after they were stolen with a bag at an airport last year:

New ring and cross for Kirk’s Moderator after originals stolen – from STV News

And in Illinois the long-running story of the fate of a Presbyterian camp on Lake Michigan has apparently been settled. While there was hope of saving the camp, with the vote of the Presbytery of Chicago the land was sold to the developer:

Presbyterian group’s plan to sell Michigan campsite meets opposition – from Chicago Sun-Times (Feb 5)

Church votes to sell Saugatuck campground property to developer for $10M – from The Grand Rapids Press (Feb 10)

Sale of 130-acre Presbyterian Camps completed – from Holland Sentinel (Feb 18)

In Mississippi, a celebration and update on a church damaged by a tornado last year:

Year after tornado, damaged Hattiesburg church holds communion – from the Clarion Ledger

From Africa, we first have an op-ed piece the decries some of the steps pastors are taking, including at least one Presbyterian one, to get around laws so they can accumulate more wealth for them and their churches:

Kenya: The Terrorism of Our Modern-Day Pastors – from allAfrica

There were also comments about the economy from the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and suggestion that spending be cut instead of taxes raised:

Imposition of taxes is not the answer – Presby Moderator – from Graphic Online

While from the island of Trinidad a problem at a Presbyterian school has parents and students protesting:

Rats close Erin Road Presbyterian – from Trinidad Express

Also in this time period we had news that Joan Mondale initially entered hospice and died a few days later. Her service was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis with music provided by the Macalester College Concert Choir. She was a daughter of the manse and her father, the Rev. John Maxwell Adams, was the chaplain at Macalester for a number of years. One reason that her passing caught my attention is that my father was a student at Macalester at the same time she was and worked closely with Rev. Adams in connection with the chapel services. I believe I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Adams, probably at the 183rd General Assembly in 1971.

At this point there is a lot of news out there and you may notice a couple of high-profile items missing from this list. I do hope to make time to blog those individually in the next few weeks. In addition, as GA season approaches the news volume will probably be increasing as well. Stay tuned…

Where Are The Ruling Elders?

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Fair warning – this probably qualifies as another one of my rants on one of the topics I rant about from time to time – Where are the ruling elders?

In the last few days two documents have come out of agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that seem to overlook the fact that according to our Book of Order “This church shall be governed by presbyters, that is, ruling elders and teaching elders.” (F-3.0202 first part) and the last part of G-2.0301:

Ruling elders, together with teaching elders, exercise leadership, government, spiritual discernment, and discipline and have responsibilities for the life of a congregation as well as the whole church, including ecumenical relationships. When elected by the congregation, they shall serve faithfully as members of the session. When elected as commissioners to higher councils, ruling elders participate and vote with the same authority as teaching elders, and they are eligible for any office.

And your point is…?

The first document to come out was a press release from the Presbyterian Publishing Company (PPC) – one of the six agencies of the PC(USA) – concerning their decision to stop using Cokesbury for distribution to brick and mortar locations and that they would now distribute their products almost exclusively online through their own system. Now that is an interesting development in and of itself and I may return to it. But within the press release was the line:

PPC encourages all PC(USA) clergy, church educational and office
professionals, religious academics, and lay members to support the
denominational publisher by purchasing books and resources through these
websites.

And where are the ruling elders? For those not familiar with Presbyterian polity they do not fall into the category of “lay members.” And this from the publishing house that operates the The Presbyterian Leader imprint. Maybe it is just that the ruling elders are not encouraged to support the denominational publisher.

OK, I was going to let this go as a one-off, an oversight, a press release put together in a hurry. After all, one point does not define a trend. But then we got another point…

In the meeting this morning of another PC(USA) agency board, the Presbyterian Mission Agency, a proposed revision to the Directory for Worship was revealed. The Board agreed to send it to the 221st General Assembly with the recommendation to forward it on to the whole denomination for study. I will have more to say on this document at a later time. For now I will say that there are a number of typos in the document that need to be cleaned up.

But reading through the Rational section I was intreagued and concerned to read about the focus group they put together to get reaction to the document:

A diverse group of scholars, pastors, and mid council leaders provided feedback on the proposed revision…

And where are the ruling elders? Yes, within the scholars and mid-council leaders there probably were ruling elders. But if pastors were invited were ruling elders from churches invited to give feedback on the document and not just ecclesiastical professionals?

As regular readers of my blog know the equal governance of teaching and ruling elders together is an area that I am hyper-sensitive about and when I read documents with that filter things like this jump out at me. I am sure that some of you are thinking that I am blowing this out of proportion. But to me the situation is something to pay attention to. If we are serious about our government structure then we need to be intentional about including ruling elders in the mix the same way we are intentional about including the wide diversity of our membership in the decision making process. Furthermore, the joint decision making by teaching and ruling elders is the genius of our system and provides the means for better decision making (see Landon Whitsitt’s Open Source Church – sorry, could not find it on The Presbyterian Leader to link to) and it is the means to engage a greater cross-section of the church in ministry. Both of these quotes, to me at least, place more emphasis on the institutional side of the church and not it’s wide diversity.

OK, my coffee break is over. Just a few thoughts for now. But I leave you with the famous words of Cynthia Bolbach, the Moderator of the 219th General Assembly…

“Elders Rule!”

Presbyterian Church In Ireland Elects Rev. Michael Barry As Moderator Designate

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Yesterday was the first Tuesday in February, the day that all the presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) meet to elect their General Assembly Moderator for the year. There were a few unique aspects to this year’s election, but at the end of the day the 19 presbyteries elected the Rev. Dr. Michael Barry as the Moderator Designate for the 2014 General Assembly.

Rev. Barry has served for the last 28 years as pastor of Sandys Street Presbyterian Church in Newry (in the southeast corner of Northern Ireland, for those of us who had to look it up). He comes from a family of mariners (according to the PCI press release) but his first career was as a teacher, training at Stranmillis College and then working as a math instructor at Larne Technical College, now part of Northern Regional College. During that time he continued his education and in 1979 began studying for the ministry at Union Theological College, Belfast. Upon ordination in 1982 he served as an assistant minister at First Larne and three years later moved to Newry where he has been ever since. He completed a D.Min. from Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, in 1997.

In addition to his parish ministry, he actively works with schools in the Newry area, particularly the Rathore School for children with special needs. He and his wife Esther have two daughters who both are teachers in England.

Following his election he said in a statement (reprinted here from the Belfast News Letter):

“I am very surprised but pleased that the Presbyterian Church has put
its confidence in me and seen fit to give me the honour of serving as
moderator.

“I look forward to encouraging the Church and its
people in their ministry as I have the opportunity to travel around
Ireland and visit congregations and meet people engaged in ministry and
mission.”

For some answers to questions from the Wednesday morning news conference you can check out Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) and his audio of the news conference on Audioboo.

There were a number of interesting points to this year’s election that deserve mention.

First, there were five candidates on the ballot nominated in the first round. Following the first ballot last night there was a three way tie with Rev. Barry, the Rev. Liz Hughes and the Rev. Ian McNie each receiving five votes. In early responses from people familiar with the history of the church no one could remember a three-way tie before.

In a change in procedure used in this year’s tie for the first time the second ballot was taken the same night as opposed to it being taken one month later, like the initial tie in 2010. The second round was again very tight with Rev. Barry receiving seven votes and the other two candidates each receiving six votes.

Another unusual point this year was that none of the five candidates had been nominated in the first round in previous years – it was a group of all first-timers on the ballot.

Finally, the appearance of the Rev. Liz Hughes on the ballot marked only the second time that a woman has been nominated and with the very close first and second votes it is the closest that a female minister has come to being elected Moderator.

So with that, we congratulate the Rev. Michael Barry on his election, wish him well for the time until he is installed on 2 June, and offer our prayers for his time moderating the Assembly as well as for his moderatorial year.

Top Ten (Plus) Presbyterian News Topics of 2013

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As we spend this day looking back I thought I would once again post my personal list of the top ten news topics related to Presbyterians around the world from 2013. In this list I deliberately use the term “topics” because, as you will see, there were a number of parallels in the different branches when it came to certain items.

And so here, in no particular order, are my picks for the top ten news topics of 2013…

Elections, Elections, Elections and a Referendum

This fall it seemed that various Presbyterian branches were regularly linked with elections happening in their state or country. The list includes the Presbyterian Synod in Mizoram state in India asking for – and getting – a change in polling dates, CCAP synods defining the terms for political involvement of clergy running for office and commentary from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana on election decisions.

Falling into this category is the work of the Church of Scotland running forums and debates ahead of next year’s Scottish independence referendum.

Disasters

Somehow the natural disasters, and the global Presbyterian response, for this year stick out more than in previous lists and it includes damage done in a tornado outbreak in the central U.S. in May and typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November.

World Hotspots

The variety that could be included here is pretty large but let me mention Presbyterians speaking out to two of them – the response against attacks on Syria (e.g. PC(USA) ) and those speaking out about the violence in South Sudan (e.g. Presbyterian Church in Ireland).

In a particularly moving story, a Church of Scotland pastor lost many members of his family in an attack on a church in Pakistan and spoke of forgiving the attackers.

New Presbyterian Leaders at Seminaries

Four Presbyterian teaching elders were named, approved and/or installed at seminaries in the Presbyverse: Rev. Dr. Stafford Carson at Union Theological College, Belfast; Rev. Dr. M. Craig Barnes at Princeton Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Mark Labberton at Fuller Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. J. Ligon Duncan at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Church of Scotland General Assembly Middle Way on Same-sex Issues

The Church of Scotland General Assembly dealt with ordination and marriage issues and rather than adopting one of the two options presented by their Special Commission chose a middle option that affirmed past teaching while opening the door to congregations being able to dissent. This led to their speaking against the proposed legislation in the Scottish Parliament that would permit same-sex marriage and asking for robust religious protections. In addition, the compromise solution was not completely satisfactory to the whole church and a few pastors and congregations have left.

Congregational Loss in the PC(USA) and Gracious Dismissal

In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2012 Membership Statistics for the first time ever the number of churches transferred out of the denomination (110 churches) was larger than the number of churches dissolved (86 churches).

Associated with this was the emphasis on presbyteries having Gracious Dismissal Policies and fairly generous allowances to be dismissed with property, although there was at least one PJC case and some civil litigation, e.g. Caldwell and Highland Park.

Re-purposing Church Buildings

Along with the dissolution of churches comes the question of what to do with the property? Although to be fair this also may be a question if the church outgrows their existing property. Answers this year include a residence in Scotland, a restaurant in Belfast, and maybe a town hall in Maryland. In addition, there were several, at least, demolished and controversy down under with a presbytery of the Uniting Church proposing to close churches and sell off the buildings to satisfy debts.

With that I have hit all the cross-branch and big-topic themes that I ranked highest and have to decide on the last three from a field of several worthy and interesting candidates. Well, this is my blog and I can adjust the rules so here are five more…

The BBC Northern Ireland produced a documentary on Irish Presbyterians called “An Independent People”

Also from Northern Ireland, there was an agreement that the leaders of the failed Presbyterian Mutual Society would be ineligible to head up other companies and word of at least one bank that declined the offer to take over the failing institution.

The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarding the dark history of native residential schools continues in Canada and this year the Commission was addressed by the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the church issued a formal apology to Kenora residential school survivors.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year issued guidelines on what was required to be included in employee health care plans and several Presbyterian-affiliated organizations objected to the contraception mandate. This year at least two, Geneva College and Westminster Theological Seminary, won court cases exempting them from the HHS mandate. Review by the U.S. Supreme Court is expected so this may come back again next year.

And the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation issued a new hymnal, “Glory to God”, but not without a little controversy about one hymn that was originally to be included but deleted when a slight word change was not approved by the authors.

And there you have my suggestions for the top ten twelve Presbyterian news topics of 2013. Your mileage may vary.

So as we look ahead to 2014 – and many of my friends around the world are already there or now busy celebrating Hogmanay – I wish all of you a very Happy New Years and best wishes for the coming year.

Looking Ahead To The 221st General Assembly Of The PC(USA)

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Tomorrow we will reach the six-month point ahead of the meeting of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). As we look ahead to the meeting of that Assembly a number of things are already in place but so much more is to come.

The GA will meet from June 14-21, 2014, in Detroit, Michigan, and while the city has had some highly publicized problems all concerned with the Assembly are assuring us that the issues will not affect the Assembly. The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) issued a statement of support following the city’s bankruptcy filing and the Committee on the General Assembly (COGA) visited the site this fall and was satisfied with the preparations and location. Regarding the situation with the city, the Rev. Tom Hay, OGA’s associate for assembly operations, made the following analogy in the article:

Detroit has much to teach the church, Hay said. The city is an
institution that trusted in old patterns after they stopped working.

“In many ways, that’s something like us,” he said.

In addition, in a bit of a test run, the Fall Polity Conference was held in Detroit in October. However, that was a much smaller gathering and so was held in a hotel and not in the conference center.

The Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) is up and running and has a web page on the Presbytery of Detroit site, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed (@DetroitCOLA). They have a 23 minute video, Abound in Hope, that introduces the church to Detroit and the PC(USA) ministries and history of the area.

“Abound in Hope” is the theme of the Assembly and will be reflected in the worship. One of the more interesting and significant changes this year is that the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will be a part of each daily worship service. In addition, GA Moderator Neal Presa has announced on Facebook the individuals who he has invited to preach at these services:

Delighted that Mark Labberton (President of Fuller Theological Seminary), Anne Emile Zaki (Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt & Calvin Institute for Worship), Luke Powery (Dean of the Chapel, Duke University), and Martha Moore-Keish
(Associate Professor of Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary) have
accepted my invitation to serve as the preachers and presiders at the
daily celebration of the Eucharist at the 221st General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) next June 2014 in Detroit, MI.

The
five of us will preach from the Assembly gathering text Romans 15:13
and theme “Abounding in Hope” with each of us connecting that text to a
Gospel reading.

Jazzed!

Including Mr. Presa, it appears that the list is all Teaching Elders in academia, but it should be good preaching.

The business is accumulating and the PC-Biz system is up and running. It currently lists 31 overtures on the usual wide variety of topics that includes boycotting HP, to a study of drug control policy, to the consultation before redrawing presbytery boundaries. I have so far spotted four overtures related to the definition of marriage in the Directory for Worship and two regarding divestment in companies – one related to involvement in the Middle East and another for fossil fuel producers. There are also those of the “blood on every page” nature suggesting changes to the Book of Order that originated from particular polity issues that have arisen over the last couple of years. I hope to have a closer look as some of those soon.

Along with the overtures the affinity groups are starting to get their priorities together. The one that I have seen published so far is from the Covenant Network. More are sure to come (or I have missed them).

At the present time there are two announced and endorsed candidates standing for Moderator of the 221st General Assembly – RE Heath Rada and TE John Wilkinson. If typical patterns hold there are one or two more waiting in the wings.

A number of special committees and task forces are trying to wrap up their work. Maybe the most closely watched is the Mid-Councils Commission (Continuing) that the last GA rearranged a bit but as of the September meeting it looked like they would be recommending fewer/larger synods but their additional recommendations were still being considered. Likewise, the Special Commission on the Belhar Confession has still not decided on a formal recommendation whether the church should again consider it’s inclusion in the Book of Confessions. It has however produced a study guide, The Bible and Belhar, for the church to look at. In addition, a study document on marriage has been produced and congregations and other groups in the denomination are encouraged to participate in this six-week study ahead of the Assembly. A special committee looking at the Preparation for Ministry Process has released an interim report. These, and a couple other groups, have until February 14 to submit their final reports and recommendations.

Finally, there is a unique video project called Were You There? being curated by Andrew Yeager-Buckley. It is a bit more than Snapchat in that all of us who have been to previous GA’s are invited to share our experiences in up to 60 second videos. As the web site says:

Record a short video on your cell phone or video camera – no more than
60 seconds – that tells what lessons you learned as a commissioner or
advisory delegate. What do you wish someone had told you before the
Assembly, or what would you have done differently during the gathering?
And, don’t forget to tell us your name, presbytery and the Assembly you
attended.

(And the Assembly we attended? For some GA Junkies that could be all 60 seconds. )

Finally, for those of us thinking of going it looks like registration and housing info is not up on the sites yet, but there is a handy link to the tourism site at VisitDetroit.com.

I am personally still mulling over whether I will be there in person but I will certainly be watching as the business and news items build up.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (12/29/13): An interesting article from the LA Times about Detroit becoming a tourist destination to view the decline and abandoned buildings.

Moderator Candidates For The 2014 General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada

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As I anticipated in my last post, early this week we got word of the nominees for Moderator of the 140th General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. And in the nominees we have three distinguished ministers from across the country and each from a different type of ministry setting.

In alphabetical order, the first is the Rev. Calvin Brown, currently serving as stated supply pastor of a two-point, or yoked, parish that includes Knox Presbyterian Church in the town of Palmerston, Ontario and Knox Presbyterian Church in Drayton, Ontario. That much was given in the press release and I have to admit that I was stumped for a bit in researching his background, but thanks to some pointers from Al Clarkson I am able to provide significantly more background. From Mr. Brown’s LinkedIn page we know that he has been at his current position for about three years now and before that he was the the Executive Director of Renewal Fellowship within the Presbyterian Church in Canada for over 16 years. In that position he regularly contributed the Renewal column in the Presbyterian Record, a publication of the PCC. He has his M.Div. from Knox College of the University of Toronto and his undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He began his ordained ministry with 20 years in a missionary parish in British Columbia. He does have a Facebook page and there are a number of photographs on Flickr from the transition when he stepped down as executive director.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Farris is currently the dean of St. Andrew’s Hall, the Presbyterian school at the Vancouver School of Theology, and a professor of homiletics at VST. He holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto, an M.Theo. and D.Min. from Union Theological College in Virginia, and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He served five years of service in parish ministry at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Amherstview, Ontario, and then taught for 17 years at Knox College of the University of Toronto before moving to Vancouver. He is the author of numerous books and articles ( example 1, example 2 ) including the Bible Studies for the 23rd General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The third nominee is the Rev. Stewart Folster the director of the Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry. The Presbyterian Record has numerous stories on this ministry, but one in particular – The Path to Healing: Native Ministries – Relating in Saskatoon
– profiles Rev. Folster. There is another extensive section in The Path to Healing: Sharing the pain of residential schools where he talks about his family’s experience and his ministry now.
He and the SNCM were also profiled in the PC(USA) Mission Yearbook this year. When he was ordained in 1996 he was the first aboriginal minister in the PCC. He has been active in part with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process that has been happening within the church and around the country and the SNCM is mentioned in the special Path to Healing articles and resources from the Presbyterian Record.

To the three nominees we offer our congratulations and best wishes and prayers as they begin on this journey. We will find out in early April who the church elects as it’s next General Assembly Moderator.

Second Moderator Candidate For PC(USA) 221st GA (2014) – TE John Wilkinson

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After a pause of almost seven months from the endorsement of the first moderator candidate we now have a second candidate endorsed and standing for the position of Moderator of the 221st General Assembly (2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This past Tuesday, 26 November, the Presbytery of Genesee Valley endorsed Teaching Elder John Wilkinson to stand for Moderator of the General Assembly.

TE Wilkinson has been the pastor and head of staff at Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester, New York, for the last dozen years and he previously served as Executive Associate Pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and as pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church, also in Chicago. The Chicago connection continues back to his M.Div. from McCormick Seminary as well as a Ph.D. from Northwestern.

He currently serves as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Genesee Valley and he is on the leadership teams of the Covenant Network and Next Church. His Moderator curriculum vitae shows extensive service to the denomination at all levels including current service on the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and his recent service as moderator of that committee, as well as his past service on the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.

Rev. Wilkinson has his official moderator candidate web site up and running and from that we learn that his theme is “With an urgency born of this hope…”, a phrase taken from the second to last paragraph of the Confession of 1967. For context, the full paragraph is:

With an urgency born of this hope the church applies itself to present tasks and
strives for a better world. It does not identify limited progress with the kingdom of God
on earth, nor does it despair in the face of disappointment and defeat. In steadfast hope
the church looks beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.

He speaks to this theme in one of the three posts currently on the blog section of the web site. Among other things he says “And urgency. Not fear, not anxiety, not panic, but urgency. The work to which we are called matters, and is important.”

On the web site you will also find a narrative bio section and a section called A Shared Vision that includes some links to his writing as well as a Presbyterian News Service article about a linkage of city churches in Rochester. And there is a section called Prayers for the Journey that in addition to the prayer printed there invites you to submit your prayers. And I did take note of the fact that the design was by Cleave Design – another Chicago connection but also a Third Church connection.

If you want to follow along with Rev. Wilkinson’s stand for Moderator, besides the web site he invites you to follow his Moderator page on Facebook. If you are interested he also has a personal Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile. I did not see an RSS feed on the site and there is no mention of a Twitter, or any other social media, account.

Coverage of his endorsement for Moderator has included an article in the local media, the Democrat and Chronicle, as well as the Presbyterian Outlook.

As I read through his material what may be the most unique aspect, in my experience, of his candidacy is the letter the session of Third Presbyterian Church sent to the congregation announcing and explaining his candidacy. In the letter is a paragraph linking this possible election as Moderator to the church stewardship campaign:

In a few days you will receive your annual Stewardship mailing, giving you an opportunity to support the staff and programs of Third Church. Given the potential we now have of national, and even international recognition, we encourage you to think carefully and prayerfully about the support you can provide to your Church.

Well, that is a bit of a unique hook for the annual stewardship campaign.

And so we wish Rev. Wilkinson well as he joins the field of candidates standing for Moderator of the General Assembly. Our prayers are with him as well as all the others currently endorsed and those that are still discerning the call.

Having said that, I will finish up for this evening but will note my eager anticipation of word of more Moderator candidates that should be arriving within the next day or two. Stay tuned…   (UPDATE: And if you are curious here they are)