This morning the Presbyterian Church in Canada announced the results of the voting for the nominee for the Moderator of the 138th General Assembly (2012). The wider church has chosen The Rev. Dr. John A. Vissers (B.A., M.Div., Th.M., Th.D.) as their Moderator for the upcoming assembly and the following year.

For over twelve years Mr. Vissers has served as Principal of The Presbyterian College, Montreal
and Adjunct Professor of Christian Theology at McGill University. He was ordained to the ministry in 1981 and served in churches in British Columbia and Ontario as well as an academic position at Tyndale Seminary. His academic degrees are from, in the order listed after his name above, University of Toronto, Knox College (Toronto), Princeton Theological Seminary and Toronto School of Theology. He has given significant service on the presbytery level, including having served as Moderator of the Presbytery of Montreal. At the national level he has served on the Committee on History, including as convener, as well as the Committee on Theological Education and currently on the Committee on Doctrine. He and his wife, Lynn McEwen have three children all currently persuing college studies – a son working on an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary and another studying engineering at John Abbot College as well as a daughter studying Occupational Therapy at McGill. (Appreciate the OT since that field is a “family favorite” around my house.)

It seems a bit awkward writing some of the text above since it was just announced late last week by Knox College, Toronto, that Mr. Vissers would be taking a new position as their Director of Academic Programs (Knox announcement, PCC news release, Presbyterian College news release)

(As long as we have hit two of the three theological colleges of the PCC in one shot, it is worth pointing out that their third institution is St. Andrew’s Hall in Vancouver, B.C.)

And so, just as one of the other nominees for Moderator, the Rev. John Borthwick, has congratulated the Rev. Vissers on his blog, we also extend our congratulations to the Rev. Vissers on both of the recent developments in his life and assure him of our prayers for what will certainly be a very busy year.  (And for the record, we presume that the other candidates for Moderator also extend their congratulations and well wishes but Mr. Borthwick is the only one regularly blogging the journey.)