GA08130

Gradye Parsons elected General Assembly stated clerk

Nomination committee’s choice wins on first ballot

by Jerry L. Van Marter

The Rev. Gradye Parsons was elected Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. Photo by Danny Bolin

SAN JOSE, June 27, 2008 — The Rev. Gradye Parsons, associate stated clerk and director of operations for the Office of the General Assembly (OGA), won a first ballot victory Friday (June 27) to succeed the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick as General Assembly stated clerk for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Kirkpatrick is stepping down after three four-year terms. Parsons has served in OGA for eight years after serving as executive presbyter and stated clerk of Holston Presbytery in his native Tennessee.

Parsons received 405 votes, or 57 percent. He was the choice of the Stated Clerk Nomination Committee and defeated three other applicants who also stood for election.
The Rev. Winfield “Casey” Jones, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pearland, Texas, finished second with 176 votes, or 25 percent. Jones was an unsuccessful challenger to Kirkpatrick in 2000.

The Rev. Ed Koster, stated clerk of Detroit Presbytery, finished third with 110 votes, or 15 percent. The Rev. William Tarbell, pastor of Saluda (S.C.) Presbyterian Church trailed with 21 votes, or 3 percent.

In his speech before the vote, Parsons invoked the names of several folk who have been influential in his ministry, saying he was “standing with them for this office.” He spoke for example of a hard-working church member in Tennessee, Betty, “who taught me that faith is not a static noun, but an active verb.”

Parsons said, “The church matters to me, deeply and passionately. That’s why I’m offering myself to the church.”

Jones said his administration would be “permeated by prayer” and that he would focus the denomination’s attention as much on The Book of Confessions as on the Book of Order. “The church has to be connected to its roots [Jesus Christ] like a tree to its roots,” Jones said. “If we are rooted in Jesus Christ, in prayer and in what God has said in the past, then we will bear much fruit.”

Koster emphasized his 13 years experience as Detroit Presbytery’s stated clerk and his training as both a lawyer and minister. “I am a clerk experienced in polity and issues of the church,” he said, “and I will invite all to the table of all theological persuasions.”

Tarbell emphasized a pastoral approach to the office and said he employs a systems analysis approach to determine “whether relationships create or block progress” in the church. “My approach will be as informative, accurate and objective as possible.”

Asked about the decades-long pattern of membership decline in the PC(USA), Parsons said all Presbyterians “need to develop the welcoming spirit of Acts 2 rather than [lack of openness to strangers] we find in many of our churches. You and I need to be more open to those who are different from ourselves.”

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick congratulated the Rev. Gradye Parsons, newly-elected Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. Photo by Danny Bolin

On the authority of Scripture, Parsons said, “Scripture is God’s gift to us and should always be our starting place. That’s where I start,” adding that the Bible “is not a book that’s easy to read and is not supposed to be, because while we are reading the Bible the Bible is trying to read us, which is not always easy.”

All four candidates agreed that fear is one of the greatest problems facing the PC(USA). “Fear paralyzes,” Jones said, “but perfect love, that of Jesus Christ, drives out fear.” Koster said that fear “sometimes makes us feel we’re coming unglued, but we have our great traditions of Presbyterianism …” and Tarbell called fear “our most destructive enemy, robbing us of purpose and life itself.”

Parsons called fear “the overriding issue in the church — everybody’s afraid that for some reason or another the church is going to close in two weeks.” He said his favorite Bible story is the story in Luke 8 — Jesus in the boat, asleep, with his disciples when the storm comes up. “Jesus wakes up and asks, ‘Where is your faith?’” Parsons said. “The middle of the lake is pretty scary and you can’t see the other shore, but a mantra I recite to myself regularly is ‘Get in the boat; go across the lake; there will be storm; you will not die.’”

So it is for the PC(USA), he told the Assembly after his installation. “We are in this together because God has put us together,” Parsons said.

“Now let’s go make Jesus proud of our church.”

At the press conference following the election, Parsons responded to a question about denominational funds to assist with legal expenses in lawsuits relative to property issues.

He responded, “The last thing we need to do in dealing with these situations is to go to court. We need to find ways to address them with each other and try to stay out of court, which will bring down costs considerably.”

“We need to find ways to help people not to live into fears as we continue to discern together how to be the church. The important thing is we need to stay connected to each other, rather than distance ourselves from each other.”