 Abu-Akel selects as vice moderator woman elder who nominated him The Layman Online Monday, June 17, 2002
"I am proud to share with him his commitments to spiritual renewal, missions and unity in diversity," Jones told commissioners at the General Assembly Breakfast on June 17. Jones had nominated Abu-Akel at the opening plenary session June 15. "I am utterly amazed to be standing before you to serve with Fahed," she said. Jones first met Abu-Akel during Presbyterian Women Global Exchange to the Middle East in 1999. One of the members of the group was the moderator's wife, Mary Zumot Abu-Akel. Jones, a member of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Ill., is a retired Christian educator who served in Western Springs Presbyterian Church. Her husband, David Bebb Jones, was pastor of the church for 30 years before his retirement. Jones has been active in Presbyterian Women, serving from 1997 to 2000 as vice moderator of its Peace and Justice Committee. At the 2000 Presbyterian Women's Churchwide Gathering, she said, "Even in secular society, we see the possibility for change and renewal and seeing things differently." According to a report in the Presbyterian Outlook, the Gathering worship included singing, poetry, dance, photography, a mime and a "jubilant herald," and times when the worshippers listened quietly to the sounds of running water from a stream set into a woodland scene built as part of the stage,. On the first night, each person was given a brightly colored scarf representing the presence of God, which the women waved when the spirit moved them, filling the hall with color. "I hope the water and the music and the dancing and the artwork and the color will all bring them a feeling of renewal," Jones said. "We tried to give them a feast for all their senses." In May 2002 she was honored as the Citizen Alumni of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. She now is active in a ministry with women in prison in Illinois. Jones and her husband have two daughters and four granddaughters. |
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