By Gregg Brekke, Presbyterian News Service.
Ruling Elder David Parker, a member of First Presbyterian Church in Statesville, North Carolina, has announced that he will be standing for moderator of the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2016.
Parker adds his name to the list of those vying for the position along with co-moderator candidates Jan Edmiston, associate executive presbyter for ministry of Chicago Presbytery, and Denise Anderson, pastor of Unity Presbyterian Church in Temple Hills, Maryland. The official standing of the Edmiston/Anderson ticket is, according to Anderson, pending the anticipated endorsement by the National Capital Presbytery at its January 26, 2016 meeting.
An action by the 221st General Assembly of the PCUSA in 2014 opened the door for the possibility of a duo running as co-moderators.
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The 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2016.
Oh what fresh hell it will be, trying to out do the last one, I just can’t wait…………
The great sociologist Max Weber said over 100 years ago the first and last obligations bureaucracies have is to ensure perpetuation of their own continued existence. Whatever political theater, traveling circus, freak show GA has become, the first and last duty of those who attend and those who lead will be to ensure their own continuation, at least until 2018, no matter how deep they need to get the collective shouts into the public troth.
And much like 2012, 2014 where course of events was predetermined and orchestrated, 2016 will be the same. There will be standing ovations for the Stated Clerk, Moderator, resolutions of celebrations for the success of PMA and all things PCUSA. As it must be.
“Well, what can I tell you? Life in the wide world goes on much as it has this past age, full of its own comings and goings, scarcely aware of the existence of the Presbyterian Church (USA) … for which I am very thankful.”
– Gandalf (with but one slight alteration)
@Peter Gregory So what do you care? You are not a Presbyterian. You have no respect for the church, you have no regard for any Presbyterians. You only criticize and tear down. By your own admission you support nothing that is Presbyterian.
If you had the courage of your convictions you would leave.
In 2008, I attended the General Assembly meeting in San Jose California as an elder commissioner from Pittsburgh Presbytery. This was a powerful experience for me. I saw the Holy Spirit at work during our daily sessions. I met many beautiful “children of God”. If you ever get the opportunity to serve as an elder commissioner, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.
Thanks for the tolerant, “big tent” attitude, James.
We’re really feeling the love out here…
“You have no respect for the church, you have no regard for any Presbyterians” “If you had the courage of your convictions you would leave.”
Oh that’s rich coming from you side, where evangelicals are villfied, property and money is stolen from departing congregations, presbyteries and the louisville sluggers are openly hostile to anyone who’s not revisionist, and I bet you typed these comments with a straight face!
I think brother “James” protests a bit too much. Not all things PCUSA has been bad. The Christmas, sorry Holiday parties when I was in Eastern Virginia and National Capital were indeed well run affairs.
it is the confusion of the ideological-political entity known as the PCUSA with anything either Presbyterian or Reformed from a historical or covenental perspective that needs to be parsed from all other matters of faith and life.
What currently defines the entity PCUSA from anything related to global Christianity is just how small, parochial, and insular, self-absorbed their issues and manufactured crises are. OGA, PMA issues, the great discussion on the future of the PCUSA, the daily ideological grind of the PCUSA is just that. Nothing. Political Islam, ISIS, Boko Haram is in the process of the extermination of Christianity in their areas of control. In the US, free expression and freedom of religion is in danger by militant political correctness and its associated bullies and thugs . Folks see that, know that, feel that. The response from the PCUSA, nothing. A non-event. Good night PCUSA, go back to sleep.
Ah Peter, you make my point.
In Galatians we are told
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage”
At the average loss rate for the last 40 years in the UPC/PCUSA, in 2015 between 45-55K have freed themselves of the PCUSA yoke by various means, and a new year is just a week away. Indeed it is a Merry Christmas.
The quality of these candidates instills hope in the future of our denomination…Not. Presbyterians used to be esteemed for their intellectual and theological prowess, starting schools of higher learning and setting the standards in reformed theology. Presidents, college presidents, leaders. Now that the PCUSA is in institutional free-fall, only the dregs remain willing to supervise over the collapse. Such a waste of time and resources. I suppose someone has to decide which other liberal denomination we’ll have to merge with in order to remain viable. “The suicide of liberal Christianity” is proceeding as predicted by TC Reeves in 1996.
As for me, I’m going to be rooting for Jan Edmiston of Chicago Presbytery as the next GA moderator. I am convinced that she will be to the PCUSA what Katherine Jefferts Schori has been to the ECUSA — an angel of death, a bowl of hemlock that will end the final flickering sparks of spiritual life still left in the denomination, an ecclesiastical Jack Kevorkian of the first order.
A study of Ms. Edmiston’s blog site
https://achurchforstarvingartists.wordpress.com/
will provide a wealth of information about what this big city ecclesiastical bureaucrat believes, and the kinds of people she admires and with whom she most closely associates. Under her watch, the PCUSA would very quickly become a year-round institutional version of the Wild Goose Festival, whereupon the few remaining moderates in the denomination would head for the nearest exits.
Some will remember that when Katherine Jefferts Schori was a candidate for Presiding Bishop of the ECUSA a bit more than ten years ago, several conservative bishops actually voted for her, ensuring her election. When questioned about this, the response of these bishops was something along the lines that a quick death was to be preferred over a slow, agonizing one, and that Ms. Schori was uniquely qualified to get the job done as quickly as possible.
So, I would encourage all of my PCUSA friends to forget about voting for that old, white, heterosexual, southern male who is running against Ms. Edmiston (however much you may appreciate his past services to the Democratic Party and to President Obama), and embrace the future that Ms. Edmiston offers to you. It is time for somebody to put this poor, dying denomination out of its misery, and I am sure that Ms. Edmiston would do the job splendidly.
“Liberal” Christianity has roots as far back as the Marcian heresies of the 2nd century, through the Deists of the 17th,18th to the Unitarians and Quakers today. In global and historic Christianity there will always be sects who will see Jesus Christ and his work as less than holy, divine, or try to make him fit in various social and cultural molds of their day.
What we are witnessing today is the implosion, collapse, extinction of the 19th century liberal protestant denominational systems of various creeds and colors. The reasons are legion of course and well known to all. But suffices to say their god(s) are far too small, their issues and causes too insular and self-serving, and their people in essence are lead by the unconverted and redeemed who offer them no hope or grace ,apart from the social-political movement of the day or hour.
In the case of the PCUSA they have sold their souls and institutions to the Covenant Networks and Queer church folks of the world. And that is what they will get. As I have stated many times, it is Constitution, not a suicide pact. As some may wish to jump off the bridge, there is no legal or covenantal implication that anybody else is duty bound to join them. Enjoy the fall.
As an Episcopalian, I’m curious…what exactly does a “Moderator” do? You guys are more elder-governed, so I’m curious as to what the duties are, since you guys don’t have an episcopal or congregational form of government.