Got to admit, this was a bit of a shocker — no sooner had I posted the line up for the 2013 GA season than I see the Presbyterian Outlook’s announcement of the first candidate standing for Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 221st General Assembly in 2014.

I’m not ready for this yet! There is still way too much good stuff this year to be distracted by an Assembly next year.  But Oh Well, here it goes…

Ruling Elder Heath Rada has been endorsed by the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to stand for Moderator of the 221st General Assembly (2014). He is a member of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church of Asheville which, on one directory site, describes itself as “A progressive Presbyterian congregation in
Asheville, NC, inclusive, welcoming, focused on Jesus Christ and
reaching out in service to our community.”

On his About page there is a long list of his professional and volunteer activities. For the Presbyterian crowd maybe his most prominent position is as President of the Presbyterian School for Christian Education (PSCE) from 1980 to 1992. (I am supplementing the press release information with dates and details from his LinkedIn profile and posted CV.) The school merged with its neighbor, Union Seminary, in 1997 and was later renamed Union Presbyterian Seminary. In addition he has served on the presbytery and national level including being a current board member of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Montreat Conference Center.

Professionally, besides the time at PSCE he was the CEO of the American Red Cross Greater Richmond Chapter and currently is the Major Gifts Campaign Director for Montreat.

His education includes an M.A. in Christian Ed from PSCE and a Ed.D. in Adult and Community College Education from N.C. State. He did post-doctoral work at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Leadership Studies.

The press release gives mostly biographical information and not much about sense of call and in the short YouTube video he explains how after being asked and praying about it he agreed to serve. His Vision page on his web site has a bit more. Here is a substantial part of that explanation:

At this time in our denomination’s history, I feel called to try to
continue my life-long commitment to help assist its efforts for service
and showing the love of Christ to all of God’s children. We should build
on our long tradition of caring for others with the help of the Holy
Spirit. Within our church family we have different interpretations and
understandings of God’s word, and of the ways we are to follow. Learning
from each other even when we disagree can be a gift from God.

My vision is that we incorporate Christ’s encompassing love for all
of our sisters and brothers, be open to and learn from one another, and
enable our denomination to be a beacon of peace and love in a world torn
apart by hatred and anger.

He has most of the usual social media in place: The web page and blog at his personal domain heathrada.org, and the YouTube video. Have not found a Twitter presence yet and no public Facebook page.

And so, as we begin this ramp-up to the 221st General Assembly we wish him the best and pray for him, his family and the commissioners of the next GA.

And on a lighter note – how often do you see it that all the candidates for Moderator are ruling elders. But that will change for sure.

And now a few polity wonk thoughts…

As you may suspect this is the earliest announced candidacy for a GA moderator, 14 months before the Assembly and four months before the first nominee usually starts popping up.  Is this a sign of creep in the schedule? Do Dr. Rada and his advisors think there is value to being ahead by so much? Are we now waging political style campaigns where the next one begins the day after the previous one ends?  I am not sure but will be watching if this early announcement makes a difference to the Moderator nomination process as a whole. (And how many of us are wondering it we should seek endorsement soon if we are being encouraged to stand for Moderator at a far off GA? )

At this point there has been no announcement from the Office of the General Assembly about Dr. Rada’s nomination. (UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this the PC(USA) issued their article.) In fact, the GA 221 page (expected to be at http://oga.pcusa.org/section/ga/ga221/ ) does not exist yet. We will see here as well how soon they want to begin the ramp-up to the 221st General Assembly. With three constitutional amendments still undecided we are not really done with the 220th yet, are we?

Don’t know what to expect, but this could get interesting. Stay tuned…