Freda Gardner Endorsed as Candidate for Moderator
By Alexa Smith, Presbyterian News Service, December 10, 1998
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A retired Princeton Theological Seminary professor of Christian education is now the first woman in a field of three men to stand for election as moderator of the 211th General Assembly next June in Fort Worth, Texas.
Elder Freda A. Gardner was overwhelmingly endorsed as a candidate for moderator by the Presbytery of New Brunswick Dec. 8.
“Freda has a long history in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is widely recognized for her service as an elder [not a clergyperson] on the Christian education faculty at Princeton Seminary,” said the Rev. Vernon B. Van Bruggen, the executive presbyter in New Brunswick Presbytery said after the vote, which set aside the previous month’s election of another elder-commissioner to the Texas Assembly. “And she is making herself available to the larger church for service if that is the will of the church.”
Gardner recently completed two terms as a member of the General Assembly Council and is ending more than a decade of service as a member of the Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education. She is affiliated with the Religious Education Association, the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the National Organization for Women. She is currently the clerk of session of the Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, N.J., and co-chair of the church’s Adult Education Committee. She is the Thomas W. Synnott Professor of Christian Education, Emerita, and Director of the School of Christian Education, Emerita.
“We’re at a crossroads,” Gardner told the Presbyterian News Service, describing life within the denomination. “But it is a time of hope and promise. And I think I have – all the way through my life in the church and in my professional life – dealt with people of diverse opinions and positions. I think the only way forward for us as a church is to keep learning and keep growing.
“I think that,” she said, “is what God expects of us.”
Gardner said others asked her to consider seeking the office. “It came to me as a call should … to at least stand for election,” she said. “I respect the three men running, but I feel we’re different in terms of experience, background and life in the church … enough different to make me an alternative candidate.
“And I approach that with excitement and a little trepidation.”