On Saturday evening, Jack Rogers was elected on the first ballot to serve as the moderator of the 213^th General Assembly. He received 286 votes, about 55% of the total. Runner-up was Elder Nancy Maffett of Colorado Springs, who has been seen by many as the candidate of the Right, with 125 votes. The Rev. Andy Sale, executive presbytery of the Presbytery of the Peaks, received 67 votes, and Elder Sandra Hawley of Twin Cities Presbytery received 46 votes.

The Presbyterian News Service report on the election offers some details of what Rogers said in his statement and his responses to questions before the vote. Perhaps the decisive moment in the hour of question-and-answers came in the varied responses to a question from the Rev. Ted Wardlaw of Greater Atlanta Presbytery, who simply asked the candidates to state their responses to the Confessing Church movement.

Rogers, whose turn it was to give the first answer to that particular question, mentioned his own studies and teaching on the confessions of our church. With the Confessing Church movement appealing directly to the Barmen Declaration as its model, he was led to study that confession with particular care. He concluded, he said, that "there is virtually no similarity between the movement here and the Barmen Declaration in Germany." That clear response brought the first brief burst of applause from the crowd in the hall. He want on to say that "to pick out three things" and say that those alone are the essentials of our faith, and the criteria for judging fitness to serve in the church, "demeans our confessions, and disregards our system of government." That was greeted with more applause.

Rogers added another dimension to the discussion of confessions by recalling a time when he was teaching about the historic confessions in one of his seminary classes.  As he tried to explain two different uses of confessions in the church, he used technical terms from anthropology, but was having trouble making sense of them to the class. One of his students soon spoke and said, "Oh, you mean the confessions can be used either as bird cages or birdbaths!"

And indeed, said Rogers, that caught the idea he was trying to convey: The church's historic confessions can be used (and have been) sometimes as rigid definitions of boundaries by which certain people or groups can be "fenced out," in an effort to protect the safety and purity of those inside. On the other hand -- and this is much more in the Reformed tradition, he said -- the confessions can serve as birdbaths -- still defined (or the water would quickly flow out), but offering refreshment and renewal to those who dip into them.

Nancy Maffett, whose turn came next, did not offer an clear endorsement of the Confessing Church movement, but did insist that "this is an attempt by many elements in the church to speak." She went on to explain that she sees many sessions signing the movement's confession of faith not as an effort to create disunity, but simply "out of a need to speak."

Sandra Hawley took a stand somewhere between the first two responses, viewing the Confessing Church movement as pointing to a larger need for theological dialogue, but as focusing too narrowly on two or three issues. "If we need new confessional standards," she added, "we need to open up the dialogue and go through our proper processes."

Andy Sale followed a similar tack in his response, seeing the Confession Church movement as "a symptom of a deep issue -- a need for a deeper discussion about theology." This demonstrates the need for a study commission, he said, and the debate on ordination is likewise a reflection of deeper issues.

Barbara Kellam Scott comments on the election.

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