Mark Achtemeier is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. He holds the B.A. degree from Harvard University, the D.Min. from Union Seminary in Virginia, and the Ph.D. from Duke University. A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he served five years as the pastor of the Windermere Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina before coming to Iowa. He is co-author with Andrew Purves of Union in Christ: A Declaration for the Church, and A Passion for the Gospel: Confessing Jesus Christ for the 21st Century. He is married to the Rev. Katherine Morton Achtemeier, and they have three children: Rachel, Sarah and Joshua.

Scott Anderson is a long-life Presbyterian who currently serves as executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. Scott served for twelve years as director of the California Council of Churches and is a former Presbyterian minister. He lives with his life partner, Ian MacAllister, in Madison, Wisconsin. Scott served as national co-moderator of More Light Presbyterians.

Barbara Everitt Bryant is a research scientist at the University of Michigan Business School, working on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, an economic indicator for which she was manager from 1994-2001. From 1989-1993 she was director, U.S. Bureau of the Census, nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. She was the first woman director of the census in 200 years of census taking, and is the only woman to have ever directed a U.S. population census. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University. She is a member and elder of First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and an affiliate member of Valley Presbyterian Church, Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Milton J (Joe) Coalter serves as the library director at Union-PSCE in Richmond, Virginia. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Along with John Mulder of Louisville Seminary and Louis Weeks of Union-PSCE in Virginia, Joe co-edited a seven volume series, The Presbyterian Presence: The Twentieth Century Experience, that examines the development of the Presbyterian Church during the last century, and co-wrote, Vital Signs: The Promise of Mainstream Protestantism, a work that surveys research on mainstream Protestantism in the twentieth century and its implications for congregations and denominations in the future.

Victoria Curtiss is director of Stirrings, which offers retreats, spiritual direction, and consultation for congregations. She served as co-pastor of churches in Ames, IA, Cleveland, OH, and Tucson, AZ, as general presbyter of the Presbytery of Western Reserve, and as director of the Women’s Perspective of the Ministry of Money, Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, Kent Organ.

Gary Demarest (task force co-moderator) brings to the Theological Task Force more than fifty years of experience in youth ministry, pastoral ministry, and service on the staff of the General Assembly in the area of evangelism. In May 2005, he completed his sixth interim pastorate in southern California and now intends to devote most of his time and energy to the work of the task force. He resides in Pasadena, California, with his wife, Marily, near their four daughters and husbands, and eight grandchildren.

Frances Taylor Gench is professor of New Testament at Union Theological
Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond,
Virginia. Prior to joining the Union-PSCE faculty in 1999, she taught for thirteen years at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A.), and of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (now Union-PSCE, M.Div., Ph.D.). She currently resides in Washington, DC, and attends The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where her husband, Roger J. Gench, is the pastor.

John H. "Jack" Haberer, Jr. Raised a Roman Catholic, Jack committed his life to Christ at age fifteen by way of the Jesus Movement. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts and joined the staff of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Pompano Beach, FL. Ordained in January 1984, he pastored Trinity Presbyterian Church in Satellite Beach, FL, for 10 years. In 1994, Jack was called to Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston, where he presently is serving as pastor/head of staff. He received the D.Min. from Columbia Theological Seminary. In addition to his pastoral duties, Jack has served as moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition and president of the board for Presbyterians for Renewal. He is author of Godviews: The Convictions That Drive Us and Divide Us. Jack and wife Barbara are the parents of two children, and they have two grandchildren.

W. Stacy Johnson is the Arthur M. Adams associate professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, having served previously on the faculty of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. His specialty within the field of systematic theology is constructive theology, and he is interested particularly in the theologians of the Reformation, including Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, and in the contemporary significance of their work. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Stacy is also an attorney-at-law.

Mary Ellen Lawson has been a lifelong Presbyterian and is a member and elder of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. She has been serving Redstone Presbytery for over twenty years as stated clerk and associate for administration. Her past service to the church includes a term on General Assembly Council, Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, and as a board member of the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program. Mary Ellen and her husband Bill, who has served as a commissioned lay pastor, reside in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and have four sons and four grandchildren.

Jong Hyeong Lee is pastor of Hanmee Presbyterian Church in Itasca, Illinois. He received his M.Div. degree from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea, his ST.M. degree from Yale University Divinity School, and Th.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, majoring in church history with an emphasis on missions. He came to the United States in 1974 to study at Yale University and joined the PC(USA) through Albany Presbytery in 1975. He returned to Korea to teach at Presbyterian Theological Seminary prior to returning to the United States again. He has organized three Presbyterian congregations in the United States. He founded Presbyterian Bible College (NY) and Korean Overseas Missions, Inc. and became their presidents respectively. He has taught at McCormick Theological Seminary, New York Theological Seminary, and State University of New York at Stony Brook as adjunct professor respectively, and dean of graduate studies, Korean Presbyterian Theological Seminary USA.

John "Mike" Loudon has been the pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Lakeland, Florida, since 1999. He previously served churches in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska. He is a graduate of Westminster College (PA), Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and McCormick Theological Seminary. He and his wife Joyce have been married for thirty-five years and have three children and four grandchildren, all of whom are active participants in Presbyterian churches. Their son, Nathan, is a student at Princeton Theological Seminary. Mike enjoys playing golf, reading, swimming, traveling, and following the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in football.

Joan Kelley Merritt grew up near Minneapolis, a member of Crystal Bay Presbyterian Church. After college and graduate school in biology, she married Richard Merritt, a native of Seattle, where they settled and raised three daughters. She is a charter member (1960) of Newport Presbyterian Church, Bellevue, WA, where she was ordained an elder. She has served on the advisory board of the Department of Spiritual Care and Education of Harborview Medical Center, and as moderator of the Seattle Presbytery. She chairs the advisory board of the Institute for Ecumenical Theological Studies, a part of the graduate School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University.

Lonnie J. Oliver serves as pastor of the new Life Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He serves as adjunct professor of evangelism at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. He is a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University and Johnson C. Smith Seminary, with a MSW from Clark Atlanta University. He also received a D.Min. from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

Martha Sadongei (Kiowa/Tohono O’odham) is currently part-time stated supply at Central Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona, the only organized urban Indian congregation in the PC(USA). A graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and ordained in 1997, she taught thirteen years in the public schools as an elementary teacher prior to entering the ministry. She has served churches in Texas and Arizona.

Sarah Sanderson-Doughty is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lowville, New York, in the Presbytery of Utica. She is a graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary, in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated in 1998 from the College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio, with a bachelor of arts in a self-designed major of child advocacy. Sarah enjoys music, particularly singing, and travel, and has been significantly involved with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

Jean S. "Jenny" Stoner (task force co-moderator) has a continuous record of service to local congregations, governing bodies, and ecumenical organizations in each of the numerous communities where she has lived in the United States and Europe. With a focus on mission and education, she has served the church as a volunteer in Pakistan, study seminar leader in Asia and South America, board member in Belgium and England, and ruling elder and presbytery council member in the U.S.A. Her diverse professional experience includes teacher of high school French and English, United Way executive in Connecticut, England, and Kentucky, and coordinator of Global Education for the PC(USA). Jenny is a graduate of Smith College and has a M.A. from Fairfield University. She lives in Craftsbury, Vermont, where she is an elder in East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church.

Jose Luis Torres-Milan is pastor/head of staff of Tercera Iglesia Presbiteriana (Third Presbyterian Church) in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Earlier, he served as pastor of an Hispanic church in California with members of twenty-two nationalities. He is presently working on his D.Min. at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico.

Barbara G. Wheeler has been president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City since 1980. At Auburn she directs the Center for the Study of Theological Education, a research institute that provides information for theological schools. She frequently speaks and writes on church life, ministry, and theological education, and serves as a consultant to seminaries, foundations, and denominational groups. In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), she has served on the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation and the special committee to Study Theological Institutions. She belongs to Peniel Presbyterian Church in Granville, New York, where she serves as elder commissioner to the Presbytery of Albany, and is a member of the executive committee of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.

John Wilkinson has served as Pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, since 2001. He previously served as executive associate pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He has received degrees from the College of Wooster (B.A.), McCormick Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Northwestern University (Ph.D.). John is a trustee at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and serves on the executive board of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. He and his spouse, Bonny Claxton, have two children, Kenneth and Ann.