219th General Assembly Moderator Election
Julia Leeth: In Her Own Words
The Layman, June 15, 2010
Please identify the top five issues at the upcoming General Assembly, and share your position on each. (Answers are printed exactly as received – each candidate had a 500-word limit)
Pastor of First Presbyterian, Lompoc, Calif.
Presbytery: Santa Barbara
Vice-Moderator: Hector Reynoso (Mission Presbytery)
I pray the Assembly protects the traditional definition of marriage as supported by the Bible, the Book of Order, and the Confessions. I also pray that the Assembly will wrestle with the hard choices about how to love each other in the midst of the conflicts. It’s about faithfully living in the tension as a covenant people. We are to lead God’s people and the world informed by the Scriptures, loving each other as motivated by the love of Jesus Christ, and challenged by our mutually agreed upon confessions. We’re the Church, all of us, so let’s be the Church. 
Get to know Julia Leeth
Leeth’s Web site
Twitter: @julia_leeth
Presbyterian News Service article
Presbyterian Outlook interview
Previous article from The Layman
The purpose of any Form of Government is to enable ministry within bounds. While the nFOG gives greater flexibility in some areas, it does so at the expense of a framework we need to achieve our goals together. The nFoG is not sufficient to handle the larger problems we face. The commission proposed by the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (Item 04-06) is a more substantive and direct approach to addressing the larger problems in the church. I am grateful for the nFoG Task Force’s work but believe the current FoG is still better.
We find ourselves in a crucial time in our denomination. Our stated clerk has said, “The structure coming out of reunion is clearly devolving.” We cannot maintain the status quo. How do we most faithfully move into the next era for the PC(USA)? How do we continue to be the Church in a time when the Church is so obviously changing? There are many potential obstacles ahead for our denomination and potential challenges if the mission overture is passed, but a commission may be the only realistic entity to wrestle with all the questions and circumstances that arise.
The one thing that is clear is that there is no obvious solution for its problem in the Middle East. The best thing, in order to walk humbly before the Lord, seems to be the overture recommending that the Assembly focus our collective efforts on offering prayer, supporting peacemakers, advocating a peace process, condemning all terrorism, and providing humanitarian assistance. In this manner, we are offering to walk with those who seek peace, stand with those who cry out for justice, and honor the conscience of Presbyterians who cannot agree as to the next political step forward.
I pray the Assembly will maintain the Church’s current fidelity and chastity standards for officers. Our historical, biblical and confessional witnesses have been clear that God’s gift of sexual expression is to be limited to the context of marriage between a man and a woman. Many are called to a life of singleness and there can be great blessing in that faithfulness. Even as I have my own convictions, the Moderator is called to serve the entire denomination. I admire how Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow entered into conversations with those on all sides and I am committed to following that example.