‘I think we’re on right course’ By John H. Adams The Layman Volume 35, Number 2 Posted April 8, 2002 Warren S. Reding The training minefield in England during World War II had supposedly been cleared of live explosives when U.S. Army PFC Warren S. Reding was told to pick up dummies. “There’s a wire on that one,” yelled a platoon leader, just as Reding grabbed the live mine. The warning came too late. The explosion temporarily blinded him and ripped through his leg. It would be eight weeks later, shortly before the surrender of Germany, before Reding could rejoin his unit. But he was there to see the end of a long and brutal war. In a like manner, Reding, a former chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, hopes to see the day when the Presbyterian Church (USA) ends its battles and returns to a faithful commitment to Jesus Christ. “I think we’re on the right course,” he says. “I think we have the right ideas. We ought to stay the course,” he said of the Lay Committee’s commitment to renewal in the denomination. Reding, a life-long Presbyterian, is a retired Pittsburgh attorney. Statement of faith His statement of faith prepared for the Lay Committee before he was elected a director in 1973 is his personal application of a verse from the Book of Job in the Old Testament: “I have assurance of salvation; I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He will appear at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body, in my flesh shall I see God.” He repeats that frequently during his devotionals. Besides his work with the Lay Committee, Reding has served the Presbyterian Church at a number of levels: deacon, elder, trustee and Sunday school teacher in local congregations; as chairman and member of presbytery committees; and as commissioner to the 1983 General Assembly. Reunion ratified The 1983 General Assembly was the historic occasion when the United Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.), meeting separately in Atlanta, both ratified reunion of the two bodies, which separated in 1861. The two general assemblies came together on their final day for a reunion celebration. Before reunion, the Lay Committee was focused primarily on the UPCUSA, the predominantly Northern denomination. Reding says the Lay Committee had mixed expectations about reunion, welcoming the more evangelical Southern church but having concerns that the new denomination would become increasingly secular. Reding became chairman of the Lay Committee in 1993, the year a major controversy erupted in the denomination for its role in helping to finance the Re-Imagining God Conference. “That was my baptism under fire,” he says, recalling how some leaders of the denomination sought to refute The Layman’s coverage of the conference. They did not succeed. In 1994, the General Assembly declared the Re-Imagining movement beyond the bounds of the Christian faith. Later, several denominational leaders left their offices. Reding remains active in the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and serves as the non-profit ministry’s de facto chaplain. He keeps track of board members and staff and their concerns and publishes a prayer digest that is circulated to all members of the board. He is also a busy grandfather. He and his wife Peggy, a former nurse, have five children and 15 grandchildren and a busy travel schedule, with family as far away as Alaska and Bolivia. The Redings are members of Forest Hills Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, a congregation near their home. They formerly were members of First Presbyterian Church in downtown Pittsburgh. Reding has been named director emeritus of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.

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