| The election of
a stated clerk — the denomination’s top ecclesiastical
officer — is on the agenda of this summer’s 216th
General Assembly of the PC(USA) in Richmond, VA.
The incumbent, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, is expected to run
for re-election to a third four-year term. The Rev. Linn “Rus”
Howard, of Venetia, PA, has said he also is a candidate, but has
not made a formal announcement.
An effort to reach Howard by telephone was unsuccessful.
The GA-elected Stated Clerk Review/Nomination Committee is expected
to announce its nominee in April.
Davis said his decision to “pursue this call” to
run for stated clerk “was made only after a yearlong journey
of extensive prayer and lengthy conversations with people of discernment.”
In a press release announcing his candidacy, he said: “We
need to be intentional about our responsibility as a faithful
part of the church historic in a dynamic world. ... The ways by
which we build our covenant life together must be clarified so
that we give witness to the saving grace found only in Jesus Christ.”
Davis said in an interview with the Presbyterian News Service
that he also would like to “broaden our understanding of
ecumenism” in a way that would reduce emphasis on the World
Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches and acknowledge
“that real ecumenism is taking place in local areas, where
people are getting together to proclaim Jesus and do mission and
discipleship together where they are.”
Davis is an associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church
in Escondido, CA, an evangelical congregation that is part of
the Confessing Church Movement.
He said he agrees with Kirkpatrick that the role of the stated
clerk does not include being a “prosecutor” in church
disciplinary cases, but he said the clerk could use the “persuasive
authority” of the position to “put much more focus
on getting the system to work as it’s supposed to work.”
When a PC(USA) official or entity refuses to submit to church
authority, he said, “We should respect that — but
it should also be clear that a statement of ‘non-compliance’
will have consequences.”
Asked about sessions’ withholding or redirecting of per-capita
payments to PC(USA) governing bodies, Davis said he agrees with
the ruling of the national Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC)
that it’s a matter best left to individual congregations.
His own church does pay its assessments, he said, because it wants
to be involved in presbytery and synod affairs and to “participate
in the life of the whole church.”
Davis said he wants to help the PC(USA) reflect “an identity
that people can respond to,” partly by giving pastors and
sessions “the tools necessary to think theologically on
the front lines” of ministry, “in everyday life.”
Davis, an attorney, attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA,
and earned a J.D. degree from Indiana University-Indianapolis
in 1989. He was in private practice in Indianapolis, IN, from
1989 to 1995. He also is a former employee of the Indiana Department
of Insurance. In 1996 and 1997 he was on the staff of the Genevans,
an organization dedicated to helping to prepare PC(USA) members
to serve as commissioners to the General Assembly. He also has
served on the staff of La Crescenta Presbyterian Church in La
Crescenta, CA.
He earned an M.Div. degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in
2000, and now serves as moderator of the San Diego Presbytery’s
ecclesiastical committee and as a member of its PJC.
A lifelong Presbyterian, he grew up in Westminster Presbyterian
Church in West Chester, PA, and was a member of Second Presbyterian
Church in Indianapolis.
He lives in Escondido, CA, with his wife, Jennifer, and their
three daughters: Kaley, 14, Brooke, 13, and Abigail, 4.
The Presbyterian Forum states that it is an organization dedicated
to reforming and renewing the church by providing information
and training to PC(USA) ministers and members. It is closely aligned
with the Presbyterian Coalition.
|
Rev. Robert “Bob” Davis
