Moderator Election

Another very important thing happened yesterday night: we selected a moderator. The moderator is the highest position you can hold in the Presbyterian church. It's not like a President in that it does not have much power to change, but rather to moderate the meetings that are held at General Assembly. They are the mediator, the host of the meeting. If you have a question, you wait for the moderator to call on you.

Months before I got to GA, I was told about the candidates for moderator in an email. The email had a link to the GA site, which then had a link to one of the Moderator's blogs. As this was the most easily accessible, I clicked on it and began to read Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow's blog. (http://www.mod.reyes-chow.com)
I really liked him and I would revisit it every once in awhile when I remembered to.

So, coming into GA, I had really only exposed myself to one of the candidates. When we got here, the candidates had booths right at the entrance of the Convention Center. Bruce's booth had a painting to sign with your vision for the church, pins, and free t-shirts for all the YADs. He had now sold all the kids in my group. :)


It became evident that Bruce was the "candidate for the youth." His connection to them was very similar to the craze around Barack Obama--people just followed him. Though Barack and Bruce are very different people, and Bruce's position of leadership will be different in many ways, they had both captivated an audience.

So Saturday night was the Moderator Election. Each candidate had five minutes for someone to nominate them, then they themselves gave a five minute speech (as Bruce is pictured below), and then there was a question panel that took place for an hour.


I tried to listen to this because I had to admit to myself, though I was wearing a BRC pin and t-shirt, I did not know a lot about the other candidates.

As I listened, I was more inspired by Bruce, but also impressed by Carl Mazza, a man who did not grow up in the faith, but appeared to live a life for Christ. I thought both would be a great moderator, but I gave Bruce my vote. He had the freshness I was looking for in the church.

The YADs vote (which is really an advisory vote for the commissioners to view and then keep in mind for their own vote, which is the one that counts) first. The were almost all in support of Bruce. Then came the commissioner vote. Bruce had the majority, followed by Carl, but a "majority plus one" vote was needed.

After a revote, Bruce won!
He is now our new moderator. Not only is this exciting for the church, but also for me as all of the GA moderators speak at Conference! Yay for next year! : )