As we approach the convening of the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) this Saturday afternoon, we look forward to the election of the Moderator(s) on Saturday evening. There are three teams that have declared and been endorsed, two co-moderator teams and a moderator/vice-moderator team. All three announced and were endorsed in quick succession last December. I am going to present these in three consecutive posts over the next two days and will do so in the order they announced, or more precisely the order their announcements appeared in the PC(USA) news outlet of record 😉 , the Presbyterian Outlook. So we being with…
Eliana Maxim and Bertram Johnson
The first team to announce was Eliana Maxim and Bertram Johnson. An extensive amount of information about them can be found on their moderatorial web site, as well as a Facebook group for their candidacy. Their information and responses to questions is the second set in the Moderators Handbook put out for the General Assembly, beginning on page 10 of the PDF file.
Teaching Elder Eliana Maxim is currently serving as the associate executive of Seattle Presbytery, a position she has held for the last seven years. She began exploring her call to professional ministry by serving as director of children and family ministries at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church. Her ministerial training began at Union Seminary in Richmond, VA, before transferring to Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry where she completed her MDiv.
She is a native of Colombia and her family emigrated when she was a young child, settling in the Los Angeles area. Her service in ordained ministry is a second career, having first completed a communication arts degree at Loyola Marymount University and then working as a news producer at CNN.
Currently, she also serves as a faculty member of the Transitional Ministry Workshop at Menucha, Oregon. Her service to the denomination includes the 220th GA’s Committee on the Belhar Confession, the 222nd General Assembly’s Way Forward Commission, the Committee on the Office of General Assembly, and vice-moderator of the National Hispanic/Latino Caucus of the PC(USA).
She can be followed on Twitter at @elianamaxim.
Teaching Elder Bertram Johnson serves as Minister of Justice, Advocacy, and Change at The Riverside Church in the City of New York and is a member of the Presbytery of New York City. While working on his BA at the University of Florida he volunteered for youth ministry with Young Life. Following graduation he spent a year serving youth and families at a neighborhood community center in Washington, D.C., as an intern with Sojourners.
He did his formal ministerial training at Princeton Theological Seminary where he completed an MDiv and Rutgers University where he completed an MSW. He then moved to the Pacific Northwest and continued working in church employment. His web site bio continues his faith journey:
When the denomination’s polity regarding LGBTQ ordination became more restrictive, although he was certified to receive a call and was working at Mt. Baker Park Presbyterian, Bertram decided to withdraw from the ordination process.
After work as an oncology chaplain and directing spiritual and practical care programs for people living with HIV/AIDS, he was led back to the ordination process and was ordained as a teaching elder at Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church in January 2014. He has served on the GA Nominating Committee and is a member of the NEXT Church Leadership Team.
One of the possible questions for the moderatorial teams to answer in the Handbook asks them to describe the church of tomorrow. Eliana and Bertram begin their answer saying:
The church of tomorrow is less concerned with membership and denominational pedigree than it is with incarnational faith, community engagement, and authentic relationships. There seems to be a desire to return to a parish model, where the church is involved in the life of the surrounding community and mission partnerships are determined not on large programmatic commitments made through denominational channels, but on local ecumenical, interfaith and secular allies.
And they balance this with
Lack of membership or affiliation desire can also mean lack of pledging and tithing for our local churches and this obviously impacts the financial health every body in our denomination from the local church through the mid-councils and onto our per capita funds that support the mission and ecclesial arms of the PCUSA.
Lots of good stuff in their answers to the questions and I encourage you to have a look at the full answer to this one and the answers to the others.
Best wishes to Eliana and Bertram in their standing for this position and prayers for the commissioners as they discern the next moderatorial team. We can meet the candidates Saturday morning and I look forward to the press conference with the successful team following the election Saturday evening.
Moving on… Team #2 coming up later