PCUSA General Assembly begins
Moderator candidates address youth adult and women’s caucus gatherings
The Layman, June 30, 2012
The candidates for moderator of the 220th General Assembly convening today in Pittsburgh, Pa., made a whirlwind of appearances addressing various constituencies prior to the election on Saturday night.
In addition to meeting commissioners during optional “Riverside Conversations” on Saturday morning, two groups the candidates addressed were women and young adults. They addressed the nearly 200 Young Adult Advisory Delegates, (YAAD) late Friday night at their caucus meeting and then about 100 women early Saturday morning at an event sponsored by the Racial Ethnic and Women’s Ministries/Presbyterian Women in partnership with the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns (ACWC).
The women asked the candidates to address “issues they see as important for women at this General Assembly.”
Robert Austell led off , telling the women that he and his vice-moderator candidate, Hope Lee, “are thrilled to be here.” He then shared that the issues of women and the issues of this General Assembly are the issues of his church and his family. When Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C., began to intentionally ask what God was doing in their community and how they could be a part of it, Austell said, “the issues of the culture become the issues of the church.” In Charlotte, and in Tampa where Hope serves, “the trafficking of women for sex” is a serious crisis, Austell shared. Both pastors serve congregations actively engaged in ministries that serve women and children who are rescued from trafficking and ministries that seek to deal with root causes.
Randy Branson said, “I was ordained in 1972 and at the first church I served my wife got involved in a group called consciousness raising. As you can imagine, my consciousness got raised and it was not always comfortable.” He went on to share his hope that the “church would eliminate hierarchies” and that “the opportunities for women in ministry” would not be limited. He said, “I hear a lot of ongoing bias against women in ministry. I hope the next generation won’t have that. In the larger culture for me it’s the rights of women to control their own lives and bodies. I thought we had settled these things and then here we go again and it saddens me greatly.” His vice moderator candidate then shared her story of empowerment into ministry through the strong witness of women in her church in Tyler, Texas. “It has never occurred to me that there isn’t a pulpit that I could fill … because those women believed in me,” Shamaine Chambers King.
Susan Krummel walked to the podium with an entourage including vice moderator candidate, James Lee, and Krummel’s two daughters, who are both moms and accomplished young women. Krummel used them as living examples of the “pressing need” of the church to address the issues of young women in the 21st century. “Are we going to ‘should’ them into our models of ministry or are we going to adjust to the realities of the world today?” Krummel asked. She said that in her day the church’s should included baking two homemade pies overnight for a funeral. Today the church’s should includes what Krummel sees an unrealistic expectation placed on her daughter and son-in-law to be at church for both worship and Sunday school because two and half hours is more time than they can commit amidst so many other pressing demands.
Candidate Krummel also raised concern about the “kind of leadership” needed by “smaller churches today” and asked what kind of training those serving in those contexts might need.
Finally, Krummel noted that in her work as a presbytery executive she deals with “sessions that are equivocal about the PCUSA.” She raised concern that “some sessions, including the women on those sessions, are willing to give up women’s leadership to find a safe place on other issues.”
Neal Presa brought immediate levity by sharing that “yesterday was my 10th anniversary and in my 10 years of marriage I have learned to give women the last word.” He then indicated that his vice-moderator candidate, Tara Spuhler McCabe would speak after his comments.
Presa quoted from author Greg Mortinson who said, “if you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a village.” Then, likening himself to Timothy, he said, “Timothy, in the New Testament, had his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice. I had three women who helped to shape and form my faith.” Presa then shared stories about his two grandmothers and his mother. “My mother who just came last night from Guam, gave up a nursing degree to give birth to me, married at 19, and now is back in school to finish that degree.”
Presa then shared a three-fold formula he advocates for women. “Faith as with font; community as with table; and justice as with pulpit,” Presa outlined.
“Sharing the faith and its rich practices as seen through women’s lives” is connected, Presa said, to the font where we are all baptized. Reminding the women that “it’s a faith that says ‘we all belong to God.'” Presa then said that “being in community with those who will empower, embrace and welcome” is indicative of the Lord’s table. Finally, Presa said “gender justice is a prophetic call” and that Presbyterian pulpits should be places of “equality of genders and of pay.”
Presa’s running mate, Tara Spuhler McCabe then shared from her perspective as the first female pastor on the staff of the historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. McCabe reflected on her tenure there which has come to an end, “There are so many young men who lifted up the importance of having their first female pastor.” Then she added, “we still have so much work to do,” sharing about a ministry at NY Avenue with inner-city youth. By the end of high school, McCabe shared, “we have more girls than boys” in the program. Adding that “the girls are graduating, they are getting into college and they are getting scholarships but in the last three months of high school they are getting pregnant.” McCabe acknowledged the “self sabotaging” nature of the reality, concluding that “the church is still the best hope for them at every moment.”
Recognizing the need to tailor their message to their audience, when the candidates and their vice moderator surrogates spoke to the YAADS on Friday night, each attempted to connect with the concerns of the next generation.
In a Question & Answer format, the candidates were asked to address the divided nature of the denomination and churches seeking to leave. Randy Branson celebrated “inclusion,” acknowledging that in our diversity “we’re the church at its most representative.” He hopes to moderate “conversations with out splintering.”
Candidate Neal Presa said that the church is like a messy feast. Unlike dining or even eating together, a feast is messy. “That’s what the church is about.”
Robert Austell acknowledged that he comes from a presbytery that is very divided and he held out hope that “the way forward isn’t hammering harder; it’s building relationships.”
As each of the three male candidates for the office of moderator have female running mates, when asked “How women have overcome limits in PCUSA” the candidates responded with their vice moderator candidates:
The candidates were also asked what they see as the role for YAADs at GA. They responded:
Krummel: “offer advice and represent a population who otherwise wouldn’t be here.” She expects the YAADs
to provide both “energy and focus for commissioners.”
Presa: “YAADs make change happen.” He encouraged them to not allow their role to “be underestimated,” but to claim this as their time.
Austell: “The GA listens more than you’d think.” Then he encouraged the YAADs to “stretch beyond one another at GA and talk to presbytery commissioners … Just walk up and start conversation.”
Branson: From the moderator’s election to committee involvement to plenary, “You have a big impact.” He encouraged them to “listen and consider the questions.” He concluded by inviting them to inform “older generation” commissioners when the items under discussion are not relevant to emerging generations.
Young Adult Advisory Delegates, known as YAADs, have voice and vote in committee and voice with advisory vote in plenary. Unlike commissioners, YAADs are not ordained officers in the PCUSA. Their presence is designed to provide a youth prospective on the business before the assembly. The YAAD advisory vote on moderator has been an accurate indicator of who the assembly ultimately elects to serve in the top office. The moderator’s election will be held at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 30.