Moderator candidates

Moderator candidates

James Foster Reese is 3rd moderator candidate

by Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian News Service

This article is also on the PCUSA website, complete with a photo of Mr. Reese.

LOUISVILLE -- February 3, 2003 [posted here 2-5-03] -- New York City Presbytery has made the Rev. James Foster Reese, its interim executive presbyter, the third candidate for moderator of the 215th General Assembly.

Reese, 79, a native of Harrodsburg, KY, has had a long and distinguished career at all levels of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He graduated from PC(USA)-related Knoxville College and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and earned a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Pittsburgh.

After his ordination in 1949, Reese served parishes in Camden, AL, and Knoxville, TN, before going into overseas mission service in 1967. He served as a teacher at St. Paul's Theological College in Kumuru, Kenya, for a year. After returning to the United States, he worked for four years as an education consultant to Synod of Catawba (NC), then joined the denomination's national staff -- first in Philadelphia, with the Board of Christian Education, then in New York with the Vocation Agency.

The presbytery unanimously endorsed Reese during its Jan. 28 meeting. He has been the presbytery's interim executive since June 1999.

After the 1983 Presbyterian reunion, Reese was called as the first (and only) director of the Racial Ethnic Ministry Unit, and served in Louisville in that capacity from 1987 until his retirement in 1994. The unit was disbanded as part of the 1993 restructuring commonly known as shape and form."

Wherever he has worked, he has been an articulate, passionate advocate for racial justice and civil rights. He and his wife, who live in Cherry Hill, NJ, have three adult children -- Mildred, James and Foster.

He joins the Rev. Susan Andrews of Bethesda, MD (National Capital Presbytery) and the Rev. Harold Kurtz of Portland, OR (Cascades Presbytery) in the race for moderator.

The 215th General Assembly is scheduled for May 24-31, in Denver, CO.

Rev. Susan Andrews endorsed for Moderator by National Capital Presbytery

PRESS RELEASE from National Capital Presbytery [11-27-02]

November 27, 2002

NATIONAL CAPITAL PRESBYTERY ENDORSES ANDREWS FOR MODERATOR

The Rev. Susan Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, was enthusiastically endorsed November 26 by the National Capital Presbytery as a candidate for Moderator of the 215^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

"I feel called to stand for Moderator because I love our church, because I worry about our church, and because I have great hope for our church," Andrews said. "With a pastor's presence and a pilgrim's heart, I seek to serve the whole church with energy, intelligence, imagination and love."

Andrews, 53, the daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian pastors, has served in parish ministry for almost 30 years. Since 1989, she has been senior pastor at Bradley Hills, a 700-member congregation located in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. From 1985-1989, she was the solo pastor of Kitchell Memorial Presbyterian Church, East Hanover, New Jersey; from 1979-1985, she served as co-pastor of Kitchell with her husband, the Rev. Simmons Gardner, an ordained pastor in the P.C. (U.S.A.) who now is chaplain at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda; and from 1975-1981 she was the associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Allentown, Pa. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Harvard Divinity School, and received a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary.

Although focused on parish ministry, Andrews has been active at all levels of the Presbyterian connectional system. She has served as Moderator of two presbyteries: National Capital Presbytery in 1999 and Newton Presbytery in 1983. She chaired the General Council of the National Capital Presbytery for two years. She has been a commissioner to three General Assemblies, serving as Moderator of the Bills and

Overtures Committee at the 207^th General Assembly in Cincinnati. From 1989-1994, she chaired the General Assembly's Call System Task Force. She was a board member of the Presbyterian Association of Science, Technology, and Faith, and also serves on the board of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.

A renowned preacher, Andrews was named Preacher of the Year in 2000 by Lectionary Homiletics. Her sermons and essays have been published in Lectionary Homiletics, Preaching Great Texts, The Christian Century, Company of Pastors, and The Christian Ministry.

"We as a church, in order to be what the Book of Order calls the 'provisional demonstration of what God intends for all of humanity,' need each other in order to embody the fullness of the Gospel - liberals and conservatives, prophets and mystics, traditionalists and innovators," Andrews said. "Shaped by the promises of God, the companionship of the Living Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can together grow more fully into the Body of Christ resurrected in the world - those who love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with our God. "

"As Moderator, I want to energize the church for proclamation and service in the world," Andrews said. "I believe that we Presbyterians have a message that can make a difference."

Andrews and her husband have two children: Nathan, 24, and Anna, 20, both ordained elders.

Additional information about the Rev. Susan Andrews can be found at www.thepresbytery.org.

Contact Information:

The Rev. Susan Andrews
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
301-365-2850
301-365-6218 (fax)
e-mail: susan@bradleyhillschurch.org

Jim Williams
Director of Communication and Resourcing
National Capital Presbytery
4915 45^th Street
Washington, DC 20016
202-244-6714
202-244-9688 (fax)
e-mail: jwilliams@thepresbytery.org

First candidate for moderator announced

Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship official is candidate for moderator

Longtime missionary Harold Kurtz is endorsed by Cascades Presbytery

[11-21-02]

by John Filiatreau, Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE -- The Rev. Harold Kurtz, a former missionary in Ethiopia who is now an official of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship (PFF), has become the first announced candidate for moderator of the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Cascades Presbytery endorsed Kurtz's candidacy during a meeting on Nov. 9.

Kurtz, who says he is "only 78," was ordained as a minister of the old United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) in 1951. He and his wife, Polly, worked as UPCNA missionaries in Ethiopia for 22 years. He later served for 10 years as pastor of Kenton United Presbyterian Church in Portland, OR.

Kurtz is now senior associate of PFF, a validated mission-support group of the PC(USA) that promotes Presbyterian mission among "unreached" peoples around the world. He was executive director of the foundation from 1984 to 2000.

He and his wife have traveled extensively in recent years visiting mission projects in Africa, Europe and Asia. They have five daughters and a son. Two of their children also have served the PC(USA) in the mission field.

Kurtz said he wants to be moderator because he believes "it's time in our life as a church to move away from so much controversy" and concentrate on "what God is doing in the world out there."

"The gospel is out of control' out there in the world," he said, "and most Presbyterians don't know it. ... We need to be about God's mission, in the church world and in the world as a whole."

For decades, he said, surveys have found that mission is among the top priorities of Presbyterians, but the denomination has devoted much of its attention and energy to matters of internal controversy. "It's time to see whether we can really program and live out what we say we believe," he said.

Kurtz, who travels more than 50,000 miles a year in support of PC(USA) mission, said he was encouraged to run for moderator by a number of people who "look at me as a symbol of world mission." In the past year alone, he said, he has visited missions in Siberia, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary and Ethiopia.

"The mission community has been pushing me for some time," he said. "I do feel some reluctance, because this is not really what I feel God has prepared me for. ... I have struggled with it, but I just couldn't let it go.

"I've had a very strong sense of call. I think this is the right course for me at such a time as this, now that I've lived out my mission journey."