The team of Elona Street-Stewart and Gregory Bentley – typically using the form “Elona and Gregory” – announced their candidacy in mid-March. Elona is a ruling elder and serves as the Synod Executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies. (She was endorsed by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area.) Gregory Bentley is a teaching elder and the pastor of Fellowship Presbyterian Church of Huntsville, Alabama.

For detailed information about them and their sense of call to serve as Co-Moderators there is the regular General Assembly Moderator Candidates Information Booklet and they also have a team Facebook page and team website through the Synod. There is also the team Instagram and Twitter accounts which have not been too active. In addition, there is the Presbyterian News Service story as well as the Outlook’s Q&A piece covering all the Moderator candidates, and a similar piece following their online “Meet the Candidates” event.

Elona Street-Stewart was born and raised in Philadelphia but has also lived in California, Oregon, and now Minnesota. Professionally, she has been involved in education and advocacy on a number of levels. She also has been professional staff at the synod and national levels of the PC(USA) including 11 years as the Associate for Racial Ethnic Ministry. Her many community positions include the distinction of being the first Native American to serve on an urban school board in Minnesota. (She is a member of the Delaware –Nanticoke Tribe.) Other PC(USA) work includes being a long-time member of the Self-Development of Peoples Committee.

Gregory Bentley is a graduate of Stillman College and Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary but did not come directly to the ministry, from reading his bio in the Information Booklet. He worked as a dental assistant in the Army Reserves and a physical science and biology teacher before being ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1988. His church work has included serving as the Moderator of the Committee on Representation and the Commission on Ministry and he is a Past-President of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus. He has also been active in community affairs and advocacy including serving as the Chair of Minority Affairs for a local branch of the Democratic Party and the President of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Their theme is “Learning from the Past… Living in the Present… Looking to the Future!” In the statements in the Moderator Candidates Information Booklet, they often reference the past as in this comment from Elona:

“Gregory and I represent the people who have been a part of this church from the beginning—but often not in roles that have allowed them to bring their full selves.”

Another theme in their responses is the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 initiative. In response to the question in the booklet about the COVID-19 virus and “How can the church’s witness be strengthened as a result of COVID-19 Gregory responds, in part, by saying:

“In many ways, COVID-19 is the crisis that reveals the crisis we were already in. It has, in a manner of speaking, democratized the suffering of the poor and people of color whose conditions, concerns and challenges have been ignored for generations. With so many more now being affected, it can no longer be ignored. Instead of pining and wishing fora return to the status quo ante, we have to commit ourselves to a fundamentally different way of being in the world that is life giving and life sustaining for all God’s children and all of creation. And the Matthew 25 Initiative of the PCUSA is one of the ways that we readdressing this as a denomination by promoting congregational vitality, the dismantlement of structural racism, and the eradication of systemic poverty.”

As the commissioners ask their questions of the candidates this evening our prayers are with them for clarity and discernment and with the candidates as they respond to the questions. God’s blessings on you all.