Last week a fourth candidate was endorsed to stand for Moderator of the 220th General Assembly (2012) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) when Palo Duro Presbytery endorsed Teaching Elder Randolph “Randy” Branson.

TE Branson is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Graham, TX, and currently serves as the Moderator of the Presbytery. According to the PC(USA) announcement, TE Branson is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and San Francisco Theological Seminary. (SFTS has posted the PC(USA) announcement on their web site.) He has served churches in Texas and Southern California.

He has provided a quote to the Presbyterian News Service about his vision where he says:

“The middle of the church needs to demand and expect a culture of
respect and appreciation in the PC(USA). Palo Duro Presbytery has been through a lot and we’ve
figured out a way to get along across a lot of viewpoints. I’m hoping to offer that to the denomination. We can’t keep going the
way we’re going.”

In addition to the Presbyterian News Service article, there is also coverage from the Presbyterian Outlook and The Layman.

In looking around for links and chatter it appears that TE Branson has little in the way of a social media presence.  He does have his sermons available on iTunes, but no immediate finding of blog, Facebook or Twitter handles. (Please let me know if I have missed these.)

I congratulate TE Branson on his endorsement and add him to my prayers for the 220th GA.

[ Additional note: It was interesting to find another pastor named Randy Branson on the web who is in the Pentecostal Church of God, actually just down the street from me.  He does have a strong web presence with a web site and Facebook page and I am hoping his links have not kept TE Branson’s information from being found.]