Category Archives: Moderator

Two Moderator Designates For Next General Assemblies — Free Church Of Scotland And Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

Leave a reply

No rest for the GA Junkie…

With the conclusion of this year’s GA cycle the circle of life general assemblies keeps on going and we start to look forward to the Assembly Season in 2011.  This week brought two announcements of moderator designates for their respective assemblies.

Today the press is reporting that the Free Church of Scotland has announced their Moderator Designate for the 2011 GA, the Rev. James Maciver, pastor of the Knock Free Church on the Island of Lewis.  According to the news story he has been the pastor there for thirteen years.  He served at East Kilbride for ten years before that after his induction in 1987.  Rev. Maciver has served as a committee, presbytery and synod clerk.  Since 2000 he has served as the Principle Clerk of the General Assembly.  UPDATE: The Free Church web site now has the news story.

With the conclusion of their General Assembly the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand announced that the Rev. Ray Coster is the Moderator Designate for the next Assembly in 2012 and will then serve in that position until the 2014 Assembly.  Rev. Coster has served the St. Andrew’s church in Mt. Maunganui for 25 years and in that time it has grown into a multi-congregation church with five pastoral leadership teams, one for each congregation.  Before his present position he served at Trinity Presbyterian in Timaru for nine years.

Following his being introduced to the Assembly he delivered a few comments to the commissioners, beginning with:

Assembly, I am sure that the one hundred people who have stood in this spot before me as Moderator designate have said that this is a great honour. And it is. I pray that when my time finishes I, like Graham will say, Church you have given me a great privilege. I really do appreciate the support you have given me, but even more the trust you have shown to me. It is a lot to live up to and I hope I can make a good contribution to the life of the Presbyterian Church as your next moderator. I have been in the arms of this church since infancy and I will die in her arms when my time comes to go home.

A bit later he talks about how he is not much for assembly politics and goes on to say of his gifts:

Never been a great assembly orator – sat through many assemblies and never said a word. But, give me a pulpit and one ear that will listen and you can’t shut me up. I love talking about Jesus. I love discussing the faith. I love encouraging others.

He concluded his remarks with his desires for the church, including this about elders:

As a parish minister I have been so strongly supported by good elders. I believe that elders are the hidden strength, underestimated and sometimes unappreciated wisdom of this church. In a parish they are like the keel of the ship. They are the story holders, the ethos carriers. I would love to encourage the elders and spend time with them.

(That’s a good quote — I will use that one again.)
And this is his closing remark about the church in general:

But if there is one thing more than anything else that lies deep in my heart it is to see the church living as a resurrection church; a church that has an intimacy, closeness with the risen Lord. A church that knows life and has life and gives life to all people. A resurrection church knows that it does not exist for itself, it exists for the world in which it lives. A church that is not concerned for its self-survival, but is always ready to sacrifice and suffer for the community around it. A church that is alive in the market-place as much as it is inside the church. It should never escape our attention that all of the miracles of the resurrection church in Acts occur in the Market-place, not the church setting. Only one occurs on the steps of the Temple. A church that has confidence in its Lord and a boldness in its mission. A church that moves in the power of the Holy Spirit. A church that lives the benediction – the good word. The empowering grace of Jesus, the overwhelming love of God, the joyful and happy fellowship of the Spirit. It’s a church of people who know that when they are in Jesus, God is not ticked off with them. They are the apple of his eye.

There has been a bit of reaction to this selection, not the least of which is Rev. Coster’s daughter who tweeted “So proud of my dad!”  There is media coverage from the Bay of Plenty Times and the press release on Scoop.

So my congratulations to both of these gentlemen and best wishes and prayers as they prepare to take up this office to which God has called them through the voice of the people.

New Moderators Take To The Web

2 Replies

With most of the General Assemblies now concluded it is interesting to see new Moderators taking to the web in various forms.  Here is a quick run-down of what I have seen so far…

The stand-out, in my opinion, is the Rev. Dr. Herb Gale , Moderator of the 136th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, who has not only taken to blogging quickly, but with gusto as well.  He is writing an official blog where he has already posted 12 entries, ten of them since the General Assembly where he was installed.  Of course, it helps to have something to write about and his last four entries (1, 2, 3, 4 ) detail his experience of attending a reception for the British Monarch on her visit to Canada.  In particular I would recommend the last one in the series where he reflects on the event and makes some theological connections.  He writes in part:

In the monarchical system as it has evolved in Canada, it doesn’t matter what our rank or station – whether we are a parking lot attendant or the Prime Minister of Canada – we are all servants of the Queen, who is herself a servant of the people.  The fact that everyone addresses her as “Your Majesty” is in fact a great leveller of status, simultaneously lifting up the lowest in rank and lowering the highest in rank. Surely this is a reflection of the profound spiritual significance of what we experience as we submit to the sovereign grace of the true King of kings (and queens), Jesus Christ our Lord, who shed his blood that we might all attain true royal status.   And as the lights suddenly came on as we stood in line to greet the Queen, as my own name was called to be introduced to Her Majesty, I thought of the passage from 1st Peter:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  (1st Peter 2:9-10)

I look forward to reading more from Mr. Gale.

The other notable web presence is from Elder Cynthia Bolbach, Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the form of an official web page with her monthly column.  I have been keeping an eye on her individual blog, Food for Thought, but she has posted nothing there since before the Assembly.  She is however up to two tweets.   And the Mod Squad Facebook Page has been transitioned to the new moderatorial team.

UPDATE: The Rev. Harry Reeder, the Moderator of the 38th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, has now posted his thoughts on the Assembly on his personal blog InPerspective.

On the other hand, it has been a bit disappointing that two other new Moderators have not yet, as best as I can tell, kept up the blogging that their predecessors began.  It appears that the official Moderator blog of the Church of Scotland has disappeared and that the Rt. Rev. John Christie will not be keeping us updated on his thoughts and activities the way the Very Rev. William Hewitt did. (And it is disappointing that Rev. Hewitt’s entries have not been publicly archived.) Likewise, I am keeping an eye out for blogging activity from the Rev. Norman Hamilton, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, but I have not seen it yet either.

It is worth noting that the Rev. Landon Whitsitt, Vice-Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the PC(USA), continues his active blogging on his personal blog, Landonville.  It will be interesting to see how much he overlaps his personal musings with official duties in that space.  (But if you want a preview of the book he is writing keep watching his writing blog. Interesting stuff there too. )

Finally, it is worth noting that two of the past moderators have not disappeared from the blogosphere.  The Rev. Stafford Carson, immediate past Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, continues to write his blog as he returns to parish ministry.  Similarly, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow has posted his last official blog entry as Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA), but anyone that knows Bruce knows that his personal blog will keep going strong.

I hope that in the coming days I’ll find more official blogging out there but this is a start for this crop of Moderators.

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — Summaries Of The Assembly

Leave a reply

With the conclusion of the meeting of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) earlier today the reports of what the Assembly did are beginning to appear.

For many years I have produced a summary sheet for my congregation and the last few years I have had requests from others asking if they can to use it.  So here is my Brief Summary. Feel free to use it if you find it helpful.

There are already a series of official responses from the PC(USA) including:

In addition Robert Austell has put up on his GAhelp.net site a collection of Post-GA information including an index of the business, Post-GA commentaries, and the News/Opinion feed.

While it is tempting to start commenting on the inaccuricies in the reporting of the popular media I will leave that for another day.  However, one of my favorite blogs, GetReligion, has posted their first piece.

So, the 219th is in the books. Lots for the presbyteries to vote on.  I’m still working on my summary thoughts, but for the moment we are on to the General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church in a couple of weeks.

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — Election Of The Moderator

1 Reply

Congratulations to Ruling Elder Cynthia Bolbach and Teaching Elder Landon Whitsitt who were just elected the Moderator and Vice-Moderator respectively, of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) .  (OK, technically Cynthia was elected Moderator and Landon will be brought up as the nominee for Vice-Moderator at the plenary later in the week but that is a formality.) They were elected on the fourth ballot with 325 votes.  As Ms. Bolbach said at one point in the Q and A — “Elders rule!”

Now, before I continue let me say that I was at a great family event among other Presbyterians this evening so I was not following much of the live streaming.  Comments on the election process are compiled from the plethora of individuals providing details on Twitter as the event progressed.  Also, you will probably want to check out the accounts from other blogs from people who were present.

Having said that let me comment on what I could follow of the election process.  For both the speeches and the Q and A session the Assembly suspended the standing rules and extended the time for each by 30 minutes because of the large number of candidates so they all had reasonable time to present themselves.

I did see some of the nominating speeches and have the accounts of the candidate speeches and they all seemed to be well delivered and touched on traditional topics.  And from the accounts multiple candidates sang parts of their speeches.

From the Twitter coverage the questions to the candidates all seemed like good ones.  They were: 1) Why is it important to have educated clergy? 2) How do both parts of the PC(USA) constitution relate to each other in decision making? 3) What is at stake in the church if you are not elected Moderator? 4) How would you address mission and evangelism? 5) How do you feel about youth involvement in the life of the church and GA? 6) What do you think about civil union and marriage?

As you can see in the table below the vote went to a fourth ballot.  After two ballots there was a motion to suspend the standing rules and change the procedure to drop the lowest vote-getter.  It would have required a 2/3’s vote and the motion failed.  In the Twitterverse Rock-paper-scissors or a penalty kick shootout were also suggested to speed things up.

 Votes 1  2 3  4
 Belle  71  60  73  51
 Bolbach  149  220  272  325
 Kim  57  52  44  25
 Lauterer  76  78  74  49
 Leeth  73  93  111  148
 Nielson  71  53  64  37
 Total  497  556  638  635


I am normally into reading tea leaves and trying to find something in these numbers.  However, I am reluctant to do that this evening for a couple of reasons.  The first is that from reading the candidates’ statements and from their answers this evening these are individuals who do not nicely fit the boxes we sometimes put them in.  Therefore, I am avoiding the usual descriptive terms and will say that I see certain affinities between Lauterer’s views and Bolbach’s views and would think that the drop Lauterer had on the last ballot went to Bolbach putting her over the top.  Similarly, there seemed to be an affinity between Nielson and Leeth and Leeth’s strengthening appears to be at Nielson’s expense.  Those two shifts don’t completely describe what is going on so there are other shifts as well.  I will say that with Kim’s name recognition in the denomination and his home-town advantage I was surprised that he was consistently last in the voting.

(Update: Jim Stochl, one of our presbytery commissioners and a friend of mine, posted his interesting observations about the election last night.  His take was that Jin Kim was too negative in his speech and answers and came across as too radical about how the PC(USA) needed to change.  Having heard Rev. Kim speak at the last GA that sounds like what he said then so he probably came across as not hopeful enough to many of the commissioners.  Thanks Jim.)

The other reason I’m hesitant to say much is because there may be bad data.  If you look at the total numbers of votes in each round you will see that round one and two are significantly lower than three and four.  There was a long interval between ballot two and ballot three as the tech staff checked the commissioners’ wireless voting devices, the commissioners voted in a few rounds of test or practice voting on whether they had dinner, and they trained the Moderator on how to call for the vote.  The consistency in the totals for the last two votes give me confidence that they got the system working.  We will see if these issues continue to be a problem when the Assembly returns to plenary session in a few days.  These problems led to a number of snarky Twitter comments which included such gems as “Lesson 1: Never do layoffs before a General Assembly” (originated with @revkirby I think) and “wireless voting at #ga219 #FAIL” (originated with @ajc123 as far as I can tell).

So, if you want to follow the new leadership on Twitter you can add @cbolbach and @landonw to your list.  (And people are lobbying hard to get Cyndie Bolbach to actually tweet — Landon Whitsitt will probably see to that himself.)  UPDATE: At the later news conference Cyndie Bolbach is quoted on Twitter by Leslie Scanlon (@lscanlon) of the Outlook as saying “I’m no @breyeschow or @bawade. But @landonw is.”

And thanks to Bruce and Byron for your faithful service over the past two years.  I don’t know if other past-Moderators worked as hard as you two did and we just did not know about it because we did not have blogs and Twitter.  But your on-line updates gave all of us a real appreciation for what goes into holding those offices and how much you do for the other 103 weeks of your term.  Thanks to both of you and God’s blessings as your live return to “normal.” (And Bruce, is your life ever anything like most people would consider normal?)  God Speed!

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) — Candidates For Moderator And… (1) Social Media

As I have been analyzing the nominees standing for Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) I have noticed a number of interesting things.  I’ll do an analysis of their statements and positions in the next post, but in compiling this information I noticed a wide range of approaches to their use of social media in connecting with the church.

Before I begin, let me acknowledge that in addition to the usual search engines, including Facebook search and Twitter search, I have to thank Robert Austell and his GAhelp.net Moderators page as well as the information from the “In their own words” feature published by the Layman.  And for comments on the role of the Moderator and the election of the Moderator you can check out my GA 101 article “The Moderator — All Things In Moderation.”

Before I launch into this let me answer the legitimate question “Why does this matter?”  I would say that it matters because individuals on the national level of the PC(USA) have now bought into the idea that the world has changed and that new technology is the way to go.  After all, the 219th is supposed to be the first paper-free Assembly.  At the 218th GA the election of Bruce Reyes-Chow as the Moderator was supposed to herald a new day and the church was now adopting technology and moving into the 20th 21st Century.  Now I think that we can all agree on two things: 1) Bruce’s use of social media is exceptional and 2) Vice-Moderator Byron Wade did an admirable job trying to keep up with Bruce.  For the record you can follow Bruce on his personal blog, Moderator’s blog, church blog, Facebook , Twitter, and podcast , to name only some of his social media connections.  And in my opinion, Byron has really held his own to Bruce by writing a really excellent blog (think quality not quantity), as well as his Facebook and Twitter presence.

The other thing I am trying to figure out for this analysis is what are typical “Moderator campaign” numbers for social media followers.  At the present time Bruce has 4996 Facebook friends (there is a limit of 5000) and 2688 Twitter followers.  Byron has 1881 Facebook friends and  519 Twitter followers.  But their numbers increased dramatically after they were elected and I don’t know what their stats were during the campaign.  Maybe a good comparison would be the Rev. Bill Teng, who I would judge as the second-most social media savvy nominee for the 218th.  He currently has 531 Facebook friends.  Interestingly, the current nominee I would judge most social media connected in the pool for the 219th GA is Vice-Mod nominee Landon Whitsitt who has 596 Facebook friends and 184 Twitter followers.  So about the 500-600 range for a well-connected nominee before election? What about the rest of this year’s pool…

Web page
This is technically old-school Web 1.0 and even Bruce has not had one of these.  These are sites with static web pages that do not include interaction through comments.

Moderator nominee Rev. James Belle/ Vice-Mod nominee Rev. Wonjae Choi – No Moderator specific site I could find.

Moderator nominee Elder Cynthia Bolbach/ Vice-Mod nominee Rev. Landon Whitsitt – No Moderator specific site I could find.

Moderator nominee Rev. Jin S. Kim/ Vice-Mod nominee Rev. Matt Johnson – No Moderator specific site I could find.

Moderator nominee Rev. Maggie Lauterer/ Vice-Mod nominee Rev. Theresa Cho – Moderator specific site

Moderator nominee Rev. Julia Leeth/ Vice-Mod nominee Rev. Hector Reynoso – Dynamic (music, scripting) site but no interaction

Moderator nominee Rev. Eric Nielsen/Vice-Mod nominee Rev. Marilyn Gamm – Moderator specific site

Blog/Web 2.0 Site
This is like a traditional web site but new articles are easily posted in sequence, there is interaction through comments and the content can be tracked through a “feed” using RSS or Atom.

Belle/ Choi -No blog I could find.

Bolbach/ Whitsitt – Food for Thought (11 entries, all posts closed for commenting) (Landon also has a personal blog with occasional Mod comments.)

Kim/ Johnson –New Church Rising/GA Moderatorial (The main blog has been active as the church blog since October 2009.  The GA Moderatorial specific section has two posts.)

Lauterer/ Cho – Finding Our Voice (Brand new this week, one post)

Leeth/ Reynoso- None I could find

Nielsen/Gamm -The website has a blog page but it appears to only be used to comment to the Rev. Nielsen.  No postings

Facebook
It appears that most nominees have personal Facebook pages but since they are not Moderator related and have privacy set to keep the general public out I won’t link to them.  Here are the Moderator-related pages I found:

Bolbach/Whitsitt
Lauterer/Cho
Nielson/Gamm

Twitter
Most of the nominees have Twitter accounts.  While Cynthia Bolbach has one listed in the Mod lists, it is private so not Moderator related and not listed here.  Here are the others I know of and their statistics:

   Twitter name Followers  Following Tweets
 Theresa Cho  @theresaecho  73  103  132
 Maggie Lauterer  @maggielauterer  16  13  9
 Julia Leeth  @julia_leeth  10  0  10
 Hector Reynoso  @elvicemoderator  5  16  7
 Landon Whitsitt   @landonw  184  171  7155


Other
I was very impressed that two of the nominees also have items up on YouTube:

Bolbach
Lauterer
Nielsen

That is what I and other web sites know about. If I have missed anything or something new is launched let me know and I’ll update the article.

Analysis and Conclusion
As I look at these statistics I have a hard time seeing any of these candidates stepping up to anywhere near the social media connectedness that Bruce and Byron established right from the start, with the obvious exception of Landon.  For the other candidates the level of connectedness so far gives the impression that they are either just getting their feet wet in this sphere or are not placing a major emphasis upon it.

So the question is, does it matter?  If you are of the opinion that the world has not changed then all this is probably interesting but not important.  Or, with the stereotype of the typical Presbyterian being of the “greatest” or “boomer” generation that does not heavily invest their connectedness in social media, this lower penetration into Web 2.0 may be perfectly reasonable since few of the commissioners, whose votes count, would be influenced.

But I think that this does make a difference at two levels.  The first is that the YADs, now YAADs, have traditionally predicted the outcome of the Moderator election on their first advisory vote.  One has to ask if their enthusiasm for a nominee has a conscious or unconscious influence on the commissioners in their voting.  If so, connecting with the YAADs in their native media would be helpful to a nominee.

The second place that I think it makes a difference is connecting with the larger church.  While I don’t know for certain, I have to think that a Moderator nominee who shows they can connect with the younger members, and potential members, of the denomination would be viewed favorably by commissioners when they make their decisions, especially if they are thinking about the graying of the church.  But the other half of the battle is for the successful nominee to actually be connected after they are elected.

As I look through all these media statistics I have trouble seeing any of the Moderator nominees with a strong social media presence or potential.  Conventional wisdom is that a Vice-Moderator choice has little, if any, affect on the Moderator voting so I don’t know if Landon’s strong on-line presence would be any substantial support to Cynthia Bolbach.  But looking through this data that is the only real strength I see at the moment.

Finally, this post is not intended to pressure any of the nominees into redesigning their campaigns to have a more substantial Web 2.0 component.  On the one hand I think it is a little too late for that and on the other I think what is more dangerous than not having a social media connection is one that is forced and unauthentic.  Web 2.0 is, after all, about being yourself and being transparent, right?  My advice is to be yourself, but try to have your on-line presence reflect who you are.

With 17 days left before the election I would not expect a change in presentation now to make a difference in the Moderator election.  So maybe this is more an argument for the successful nominee to figure out how to integrate more social media into their time as Moderator.  Do we expect a repeat of Bruce and Byron’s presence — probably not.  But by the same token we would expect the Moderatorial term to reflect that the world has changed, at least if we believe that it has.  Stay tuned to see how they do.

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) — Sixth Candidate For Moderator And Other Details

Leave a reply

Having hit a short break between Assemblies, the GA of the Church of Scotland finishing this morning (my time) and the Presbyterian Church in Canada scheduled to convene in just over a week’s time, I need to get caught up on some recent developments in the PC(USA).  The first is the announcement of a sixth candidate for Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Presbytery of Santa Barbara has issued a call for a special presbytery meeting on June 9 to act on the endorsement of the Rev. Julia Leeth, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lompoc, to stand for Moderator of the General Assembly.  In the letter accompanying the notice Rev. Leeth writes:

I feel called to be the Moderator of the 219th Assembly because I love His Church. I feel comfortable and have some experience moderating meetings that are both pleasant and challenging.  I have skills that lend themselves to moderating a meeting that may be at time [sic] pleasant and at others challenging.  I want to be a good steward of my gifts and this is a very tangible way to respond to God’s call.  In the same way that I have tried to foster relationships with every person in our presbytery, including those who may have a different theological perspective than I, I plan to foster relationships at this General Assembly.  In this way, we can all see the wonderful things that God is doing in and through His people across the denomination.

She continues:

Finally, I stand on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  I hope to proclaim this truth in everything that I do and say and am and am to become.

The Layman has an article on her candidacy published on May 19 that lists the called presbytery meeting for June 1.  The Outlook article of May 20 just talks of a June meeting.  And Robert Austell has added her to his list of Moderator candidates on his GA Help site.  I don’t see an article from the Presbyterian News Service yet, which is interesting because they were quick to jump on the news of the fifth candidate before he was endorsed by his presbytery.

Regarding the Moderator election most of the Moderator candidates have now named their Vice-Moderator designees.  These Vice-Moderator candidates are:

Rev. Landon Whitsitt with Elder Cynthia Bolbach
Rev. Theresa Cho with Rev. Maggie Lauterer
Rev. Marilyn Gamm with Rev. Eric Nielsen
Rev. Hector Reynoso with Rev. Julia Leeth

The General Assembly web site is filling out nicely, including the Moderator Election page with the first five candidates.  Most of the site is basic information for commissioners and the docket is not much more than the planned times for meetings but no listing of which committees will be reporting when.

In addition to GA Help there are a few other GA specific web sites coming on line.  In an individual effort, Bob Davis is putting together material at Presbyblog.  There are also advocacy group web sites tracking GA including Covenant Network,  More Light Presbyterians, Presbyterian Coalition, Presbyterians for Faith Family and Ministry, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and Presbyterian Voices for Justice.  I’ll add the PC(USA) to my GA Junkie wiki in the near future.  And let me know of resources I’ve missed.

Well enough PC(USA) for now – that GA is still 38 days away.  There is lots more action before then.

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) — Fifth Candidate For Moderator

Leave a reply

When I posted yesterday on the third and fourth nominees standing for the Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) I thought that I would be waiting a couple more weeks to present the fifth candidate until his presbytery endorsed him.  But I changed my mind when I considered that 1) starting next Monday I want to devote as much time as possible to following the Assembly meetings that will be in progress and 2) a Presbytery endorsement this late brings up some interesting timing issues in the Standing Rules.

Let me briefly point out the timing described in Chapter H of the Standing Rules of the General Assembly.  First, section H.1.b.(1) gives a far limit for endorsing a Moderator candidate and that is not before the previous Assembly adjourns.  But note that there is no minimum time before the Assembly that a nominee must be announced and endorsed.  The implication is that at the time of the election of the Moderator at the Assembly a new name of a commissioner may be brought from the floor.

But there is a big advantage to being endorsed ahead of time and that is your inclusion in the document produced by the Office of the Stated Clerk described in section H.1.b.(3)(e).  This has specific deadlines for inclusion including submission of all materials not less than 45 days before the Assembly convenes and the Office of the Stated Clerk publishing the final “booklet” electronically 15 days before the Assembly.  It should also be pointed out that under section H.1.b.(2) “ordinarily” each Moderator nominee needs to submit the name of the commissioner they will put forward to be confirmed as their Vice-Moderator 45 days before the Assembly.  (But how does that work if they are nominated from the floor? I guess that gets by in the “ordinarily.”)

So what does that mean this year?  If I did the math correctly next Thursday, May 19, is the 45 day deadline for materials and Vice-moderator names.  The packets will be available no later than Friday June 18.  So, with this in mind consider the fifth nominee for Moderator of the 219th General Assembly…

The Rev. James A. Belle has been nominated to stand for election as Moderator with the anticipation he will be endorsed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia at their next stated meeting on May 25.  According to the Presbyterian News Service story, since 2005 he has been the pastor of Holy Trinity-Bethlehem Presbyterian Church.  The announcement is brand new and I have found no formal announcement, web presence, or social media site so there is not a lot more information.  I will update here when I find those.  There is an article from The Layman with a bit of research they have done.

The PNS article provides a bit of background telling us that Rev. Belle is a second career minister having his first degree in music and employment in the army for 10 years using his musical talents.  Training for his second career for the church included not only an M.Div. from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary but a master of church music from there as well.

He does make a statement quoted in the PNS article (and probably drawn from his Q&A for the info booklet) that – inserting my bias here – resonates with me:

“I see biblical and confessional ‘illiteracy’ as the major obstacles facing our church today,” Belle wrote in a statement on key theological issues. “I hold ministers of the Word and Sacrament directly responsible within the last 20 years for the lack of confessional and polity training to and for our laity. Without an understanding of the Scriptures and their historic linkage to the confessions, the Book of Confessions is difficult to understand.”

Based on that, I look forward to reading more.  And if the Assembly elects him as their Moderator, and if the Belhar Confession is sent to the presbyteries, with his expressed passion for the confessions it will be interesting to hear him interpret the Assembly’s actions.

The 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) — Third And Fourth Candidates For Moderator

Leave a reply

In the last two weeks two additional nominees have been endorsed by their presbyteries to stand for election as Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  So here are the third and fourth nominees for the post, listed in order of their endorsement, and there is now word of a fifth candidate awaiting endorsement as well.

On Tuesday April 27 the Presbytery of Western North Carolina endorsed the Rev. Maggie Palmer Lauterer to stand for Moderator of the 219th General Assembly.  She is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Burnsville, N.C.  In order to endorse her for Moderator it was first necessary to elect her as a substitute commissioner to the assembly to replace a clergy commissioner who relinquished his position to make way for her.

A well-produced flyer in PDF format is available from the presbytery web site introducing the Rev. Lauterer. In that flyer she says:

We are a denomination of many small churches and I believe that a passion for the small church is an imperative for PCUSA [sic] leadership. My recent experience has been in a 113-year-old small church, one that had suffered two splits in the ten years prior to my arrival.

And later adds

I believe that, as members of the PCUSA [sic], we are called to be members of a worldwide Presbyterian community. My experience guides me and, I feel, can guide our denomination as we pursue a deeper understanding of the world’s struggles. I have traveled with Presbyterian groups to many places. I have helped build a school in Recife, Brazil; I have studied church issues as I traveled across Central America to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. I have studied the complex issues of the Middle East, traveling in Jordan, Egypt, Palestine and Israel. In the sensitive era of Perestroika, I traveled to Russia seeking a sister city and commonality — a novel idea in those days — in what was then the Soviet Union.

For the last five years, I have traveled with other members of our church to Guatemala, establishing a strong and growing relationship with our sister church (Nueva Esperanza) in San Felipe, and learning more about the PCUSA’s role in Guatemala.

And she concludes with her third issue

And, lastly, but of no less importance, I do not believe that growth of the Church has as much to do with age and location as it does with our openness to the transformative powers of the Trinity as we are called toward new frontiers – the new front lines of being Christ’s Church, of  “doing Christ’s Church” in the light of the radical love Christ has taught us. As I stand for Moderator, that standard will be my standard.

The information sheet also tells us that she is a second-career pastor, having served her congregation since her ordination in 1999.  She previously worked in journalism and made an unsuccessful run for U.S. Congress.  She has served in several forms at the presbytery level, including as Moderator of presbytery.  She has also served on leadership for different workshops and conferences.  And she and her husband have two adult children and two grandchildren.  Finally, on a personal note, according to the bio she also plays the dulcimer, although it does not specify if it is the Appalachian or hammer variety.  (I play both so either is fine with me.)

For additional information you can check out articles from the Presbyterian News Service, The Layman, The Outlook.  I have not yet found a web or social network presence for her candidacy but will update here if I do.

On May 6 the Presbytery of Northern Waters endorsed the Rev. Eric Nielsen to stand for election as Moderator of the 219th General Assembly.  The Rev. Nielsen is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Eau Clair, WI. (Catchy church motto: “The perfect church for people who aren’t.”)

He has established a web presence at www.ericnielsen.org where he, or his team, have created a fairly basic and informative site.  The front page has a nice description of his faith journey and I appreciate the twists and turns his call to ministry took.  In particular, I like this description of how others helped him discern his call:

I was active in my church growing up, but never thought of serving God as a pastor. In college I studied Economics and planned to teach high school. I studied voice for several years, was a part of my university’s opera company, and even earned an audition with the Metropolitan Opera – music has always been a large part of my life. But during those college years God’s call came to me once again in a very unexpected way. One day while working with the choir of First Presbyterian Church in Waterloo, IA, their pastor, Jack Boelens handed me an envelope. Inside was an airline ticket. He said the Session of the church believed I had gifts and a calling for ministry, and so they were sending me to Louisville Seminary to attend an Exploratory Weekend. I didn’t know what to say. It just so happened that I had no classes the Friday of this event, removing any excuse not to go. Not convinced this is what I was supposed to be doing, I acknowledge that I was given a lot to pray about.

His forms of service to the denomination include a variety of presbytery work as well as some work on the synod level including Moderator of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.  He has served churches in the Midwest as well as earlier work in the Louisville, KY, area.

He has posted his answers to the questions that the Office of the General Assembly asks.  In answering the question about what the Belhar Confession would bring to the denomination he writes:

Each of our confessions is context specific. Belhar could be seen as a natural progression of our 20th century statements. The Theological Declaration of Barmen addressed the challenge of idolatry in the community of faith. The Confession of 1967 narrowed the focus of such idolatry as it spoke to unique issues of the 1960s, of which racism and disunity were significant. Our last confession, The Brief Statement of Faith, sought to move us further toward the under-standing of justice and reconciliation. Belhar could now direct the action of the church –moving us from statements of belief to actions that reflect those beliefs – based upon the teachings of Scripture and our obedience to Jesus Christ.

Regarding “ministry to and with youth and young adults” he says:

In most congregations young adults are the missing generation. While we might be able to provide resources and encouragement as the national church, the fact is that this challenge will only be addressed at the congregational level.  While I want to affirm the importance of family ministry, I believe we need to simultaneously increase efforts toward singles ministry. Only 25% of all U.S. households are now married parents with children. We have many single parent households. Young adults are getting married and having children much later in life, yet often church programs and efforts are focused on the “traditional family.”

And regarding the new revised Form of Government he begins:

I believe that the proposed changes to our current Form of Government (FOG) is much needed and long overdue. Corporations and other institutional entities have been moving and adapting to a changing social context for the last several decades, trying to keep ahead of technologies and changing social realities. The Church, however, has remained entrenched in a 1950s corporate model (a model corporations themselves have long since abandoned). A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works in business; it doesn’t work for the Presbyterian Church either.

And stay tuned for his blog.  The tab is there but so far only a test message and I don’t see the RSS feed.  For more info there are also stories from the Presbyterian News Service and The Layman.

So that rounds out the field to four candidates, one elder and three ministers.  As I said at the beginning, it appears we can expect a another clergy candidate.  In addition, the question and answer book is in preparation so that will give us more background as well as the corresponding Vice-Moderator candidates.  Stay tuned because there is lots more to come.

Nominee For Moderator Of The 136th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada Announced

Leave a reply

Today it was announced The Rev. Dr. Herbert Gale is the nominee for Moderator of the 136th General Assemblyof the PresbyterianChurch in Canada. The announcement was made by The Rev. Stephen Kendall, Principal Clerk of General Assembly, on behalfof the Committee to Advise the Moderator, The Rev. Gale being chosen from the three candidates announced in December.

The Rev. Gale currently serves as the Associate Secretary, Planned Giving, for the Presbyterian Church in Canada.  He is a native of North Carolina and was a member of Myers Park Presbyterian Church as well as serving that church as youth director after college.  He attended Union Theological Seminary (Richmond) and served as pastor of Shelby Presbyterian Church in Shelby, NC, after seminary.  He later earned an M.Th. from the Toronto School of Theology and began his service to the Presbyterian Church in Canada at St. James Presbyterian Church, Stouffville, Ontario.  In 1993 he and his wife Shirley were called to Westminster-St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Guelph to serve as co-pastors.  In 2004 the Rev. Gale moved to his current position with the denomination.

He has served multiple times on church advisory committees, including the Worship Advisory Committee when it produced the Book of Common Worship in 1991 as well as serving as a worship leader for various conferences.  The press release says of his ministry:

A pastor at heart and a Canadian Presbyterian by conviction, Herb isconvinced that an intentional focus on planned giving can help providean additional source of funding for the church at every level to realizeits dreams and to expand its ministry for generations to come.

Moderator Designate Of The General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Ireland

Leave a reply

Three news sources, the BBC, U.TV, and Daily News, are reporting that the Rev. Norman Hamilton, pastor of Ballysillan Presbyterian Church in north Belfast, has been chosen by the presbyteries as the Moderator designate of the 2010 General Assembly.  Presuming that he carried the five presbyteries that voted for him in the February vote, he received votes from six of the nine presbyteries that voted for candidates not making it into the second round.  He received the votes of eleven of the nineteen presbyteries.

The BBC provides this reaction from Rev. Hamilton:

“I am greatly humbled and surprised that this has come to me.”

“I hope during my year to bring a very Biblical perspective to a wide range of issues that are important to both church and society.”