Renewal group executive is candidate for stated clerk The Layman Online Monday, January 5, 2004 San Diego, Calif. – Robert "Bob" Davis of the Presbytery of San Diego has become the first announced candidate in the 2004 stated clerk election in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Davis, a Presbyterian minister and executive director of the Presbyterian Forum, a renewal organization, announced his candidacy today. The incumbent stated clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, has not announced whether he will seek a third four-year term, but close associates say he is likely to run. A third possible candidate, the Rev. L Rus Howard of Venetia, Pa., has acknowledged his interest in seeking the office but has not formally declared that he be a candidate. As the highest constitutional officer in the denomination, the stated clerk is required to "preserve and defend" the constitutional documents that bind Presbyterians – The Book of Confessions and the Book of Order. The clerk is also the denomination's chief ecumenical officer. The stated clerk election will occur during the meeting of the 216th General Assembly in Richmond, Va., in June. "It is time for a new direction in the Presbyterian Church (USA)," Davis said in an e-mail sent to The Layman Online. "We need to be intentional about our responsibility as a faithful part of the Church historic in a dynamic world." "We need to equip the people of the church to do the work of the church. 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. Our understanding of ecumenism must be broadened and must seek to encourage the proclamation of Christ across denominational bounds at the local level." "Pursuing this call is not a decision I've entered lightly. It was made only after a year-long journey of extensive prayer and lengthy conversations with people of discernment," said Davis. Davis is a lifelong Presbyterian. As executive director of the Presbyterian Forum, Davis has worked for reformation and renewal by providing information, training, updates and analyses of the events taking place within the Presbyterian Church (USA). A non-practicing lawyer, Davis also serves as an associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Escondido, Calif. He is 39 years old. Within San Diego Presbytery, he is moderator of the Ecclesiastical Committee and is a member of the Permanent Judicial Commission. Before coming to San Diego, Davis served as intern and assistant to the pastor at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church from 1996 to 2000 (La Crescenta, Calif., San Fernando Presbytery, Synod of Southern California and Hawaii). In 1996 and 1997 he was a staff member of the Genevans, an organization within the Presbyterian Church (USA) dedicated to helping commissioners to General Assembly understand the process. He graduated with a master of divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2000. From 1989 to 1995 he was an attorney in Indianapolis. He served as an attorney for the Indiana Department of Insurance under then-Gov. Evan Bayh before entering private practice as a trial lawyer focusing on plaintiff's medical negligence law. Davis grew up in Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Chester, Pa. (Donegal Presbytery, Synod of the Trinity), and was confirmed and professed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior as part of a ninth-grade confirmation class. He joined as a member of Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1989 (Whitewater Valley Presbytery, Synod of Lincoln Trails). Davis received a J.D. degree from Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis in 1989 and a B.A. in American Studies from Dickinson College in 1986. He lives in Escondido, Calif., with his wife, Jennifer, and three children, Kaley (14), Brooke (13), and Abigail (4).

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