Today's the day!

To the rest of the world, today might be July 4th Eve. In Minneapolis, today is the first official day of business for the 219th General Assembly, and the day to elect a new Moderator.

I think of the Moderator of GA more as the Mayor of our church. He or she is the person who makes the ceremonial appearances on behalf of the PCUSA, and serves as a goodwill ambassador. The Moderator can affect policy in their selections of people to serve on special committees, but even then they follow guidelines for inclusion and representation. The day-to-day business of the PCUSA is carried out by the Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk, and by the Executive Director of the General Assembly Mission Council, Linda Valentine (an elder from Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago).

Even so, the Moderator often reflects the personality of the particular GA which elected them. The first moderator of the newly-formed PCUSA in 1983, Randy Taylor, was seen as very much a peacemaker and someone who could work with all tender sides of a new denomination. He was also a Southerner, which was thought to set at ease the minds of those in the former "Southern" church (PCUS) who were wary of reunion. The Rev. Benjamin Weir was elected moderator in 1986, shortly after he was released after being held hostage in Beirut; he brought a very particular voice to peacemaking issues in the Middle East that year. The Rev. Joan Gray, who preceded our current moderator, was an intentional interim pastor who literally "wrote the book" on polity for officer training. That year it was good to have a steady hand at the wheel who understood both transition AND the Book of Order.

Today is the last day of Bruce Reyes-Chow's moderatorial year. He is by far the youngest person to have held the office; he is definitely the most technology-savvy moderator; and he has leaned heavily on his Vice-Moderator, The Rev. Byron Wade, to help out with those visits and ceremonial duties. Both of them have Facebooked, Blogged and Twittered their way into our hearts, and I would say the church has never felt more in touch with what their leaders are doing.

The church reunited in 1983, but there were no vice-moderators until 1995 when Marj Carpenter was Moderator. She named her pastor as the Vice-Moderator, the Rev. Bill Henning from (at the time) Big Spring, Texas. Since that time, the selection of a Vice-Moderator has usually evolved into someone who can balance the gifts of the Moderator in some way: perhaps someone of the opposite sex, more conservative or liberal, from a different region of the country, or perhaps in Bruce's case, someone almost as gregarious as he who can help him be in two places at once.

This year there are SIX candidates for Moderator, which is quite unusual. Each has already selected his or her running mate. Last night they were doing "meet and greet" activities at the Convention Center. Today they will each speak at the luncheon hosted by the Presbyterian Outlook. And then tonight is the election. They will each be allotted a limited time to speak on the floor, and then there will be time for further questions. Gradye Parsons says that there will be a recommendation to suspend the Standing Rules to allow for 90 minutes of questions instead of 60, since there are so many candidates. But we will see what is the will of the body!

Tonight's business session begins at 7pm Central Daylight Time. You can watch streaming video of the Assembly by tuning in to www.pc-biz.org. Hope to see you there!