While the nation may focus on presidential politics in 2016, there is another contest on the same four-year cycle that captures the attention of many Presbyterians—the nomination and election of a Stated Clerk of the General Assembly to serve, in the words of the current job description, as chief ecclesiastical officer of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This June, the 222nd General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, will elect a Stated Clerk to succeed Gradye Parsons, who is not standing for another term.
According to Carol McDonald, retired Executive of the Synod of Lincoln Trails, and Moderator of the Stated Clerk Nomination Committee, the process of nominating a new Stated Clerk has gone smoothly, with the committee working diligently to discern what the church is seeking now in a new office holder. The nine-person committee, which was elected by the General Assembly in 2014 according to a formula stipulated by the General Assembly Manual, will bring directly to the floor the name of J. Herbert Nelson, Director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Public Witness, to stand for election. Nelson will be challenged by one other candidate who made application and was considered by the committee, David Baker, Stated Clerk of Tampa Bay Presbytery. Nominations will occur on Sunday, June 19 and the election will take place on Friday, June 24.
In a rapidly changing church and world, no one is exempt from fear and anxiety, the Reverend Veronica Goines told more than 430 leaders of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries and synods gathered in Portland, Oregon, for the annual Polity Conference and fall meetings.
“If we don’t stay on our knees, we will not make it,” said Goines, pastor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City, California. She preached at a worship service that opened the joint gathering.
“So many of us went into ministry for an ideal, and it’s turned out to be an ordeal, and we want a new deal,” Goines said. But, “It’s better to be in the mess with God than to be in the clear without God.”
Teaching Elder Mark A. Tammen has been awarded the C. Fred Jenkins Constitutional Services Award, which honors a person or group that has given wise, prudent and vigilant support to the constitution and polity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“Fred made me believe in Mark; he pressed me to try what I was wary of, most often successfully – to his delight,” Tammen said in an email read at Tuesday evening's Association of Stated Clerks of the PC(USA) dinner at the 221st General Assembly (2014). Tammen was unable to attend due to jury duty.