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May 28, 2008

Four vie for GA moderator

Three ministers, elder stand for election to PC(USA)’s highest post

Editor’s note: This is the first in series of Presbyterian News Service backgrounders on key issues facing the upcoming 218th General Assembly, June 21-28 in San Jose, CA.

by Jerry Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Three ministers and an elder — representing presbyteries from coast to coast — are standing for election as moderator of the 218th General Assembly, June 21-28 in San Jose, CA. The election will take place on the first day of the Assembly.

The General Assembly moderator presides over the biennial legislative gathering of the 2.3 million-member denomination and then serves as a roving good-will ambassador for two years, representing the denomination at various events and serving as the official spokesperson on behalf of the General Assembly.

The four candidates standing for election are the Rev. Carl Mazza of New Castle Presbytery, based in Newark, DE; the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow of San Francisco Presbytery in northern California; Elder Roger Shoemaker, an elder in Lincoln, NE, in Homestead Presbytery; and the Rev. Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery, based in Washington, DC.

The Rev. D. Carl Mazza is pastor/director of Meeting Ground, a ministry with the homeless and other marginalized persons in Cecil County, MD. He has been endorsed by New Castle Presbytery.

A native of Philadelphia, Mazza, 61, graduated from Nyack (NY) College and Princeton Theological Seminary. He pastored churches in Maryland, Massachusetts and Delaware before founding Meeting Ground with his late wife, Marsha, in 1982. Mazza has been an ordained minister in the PC(USA) since 1978.

Mazza has served on a number of presbytery committees and as a commissioner to the Synod of Mid-Atlantic. He has served on numerous community boards and as a member of the board of directors of the National Coalition for the Homeless. He was also a founding partner of Borderlinks, the Tucson, AZ-based ecumenical ministry to people along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Quotable quote: In my ministry I have tried to return to the church, and to others who are experiencing alienation and homeless, the same blessing of hope which was extended to me in my need. I can offer a unique perspective on the importance of mission and evangelism — it is a deeply rooted part of my heart and my personal faith journey.

The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow is pastor of Mission Bay Presbyterian Church a new church development in San Francisco. He has been endorsed by San Francisco Presbytery.

A Northern California native and the grandson of Filipino and Chinese immigrants, Reyes-Chow, 38, graduated from San Francisco State University and San Francisco Theological Seminary. His first pastorate was Covenant Presbyterian Church, also in San Francisco. He’s been an ordained PC(USA) minister since 1995.

Reyes-Chow has served at all levels of the PC(USA) including the National Asian Presbyterian Council, the Church Growth Strategy Team, the Committee on Higher Education and as an adult advisor to Youth Advisory Delegates at several General Assemblies. He has served as a PC(USA) delegate to the National Council of Churches General Assembly and has traveled for the denomination to Cuba and Nicaragua.

Quotable quote: It is time to embrace the chaos and ambiguity of the day with a solid belief that it is through a centered walk with Christ that we find peace of mind, body and spirit for ourselves and for the world. This is not the time to legislate our way into unity, but to engage in the difficult work of building relationships that are not about convincing and persuading but about the authentic discovery of the voice of Christ in one another.”

Elder Roger Shoemaker is a member of Southern Heights Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, NE. He has been endorsed by Homestead Presbytery.

A native of Wyoming, IL, Shoemaker, 74, graduated from Fresno State College in California with a degree in industrial engineering. He is both an elder, ordained in 1966, and deacon. He has served in a variety of capacities in PC(USA) congregations in California and Nebraska.

Shoemaker has also served in numerous capacities in Homestead Presbytery and the Synod Lakes and Prairies, including as vice-moderator. As convenor of the denomination’s Czech Mission Network, Shoemaker has been instrumental in establishing partner church relationships between PC(USA) Czech congregations and is the PC(USA) representative to the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren Synodical.

Quotable quote: Our call, as was Abraham’s is to live into the discomfort of our faith, to be a people willing to love one another warts and all. In John 10 Jesus talks about his sheep knowing his voice, yet we seem to be unwilling to listen to one another and to debate as necessary in order to find the love into which we are called: to hear the voice of Jesus amidst the din and roar of each other’s rhetoric.

The Rev. William “Bill” Teng is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA. He has been endorsed by National Capital Presbytery.

Teng, 54, is a native of Hong Kong. He graduated from the City College of New York, Nyack (NY) College and Alliance Theological Seminary. After six years as a minister in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, he was ordained in the PC(USA) in 1985 and served pastorates in Hong Kong, Florida, and Washington, DC, before going to Heritage Church in 1999.

Teng has been active in both Central Florida Presbytery and National Capital Presbytery, where he has served as vice-moderator and moderator as well as several committees. He was a commissioner to the 2002 and 2004 General Assemblies. He has served on several ecumenical boards in the Washington area and in 2007 was president of  Presbyterians for Renewal.