Columbia Seminary selects court moderator as president The Layman Online Tuesday, June 20, 2000 Laura Mendenhall DECATUR, Ga. – The new president of Columbia Theological Seminary is also the moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) court that recently ruled that PCUSA ministers may conduct services blessing homosexual couples who live together. The Rev. Laura S. Mendenhall was called to the seminary, beginning in August, by the Columbia trustees. She succeeds the Rev. Douglas W. Oldenburg, former moderator of the PCUSA, who charted a liberal course at the Presbyterian seminary as well as in his work in the denomination. Mendenhall, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, is the moderator of the 16-member Permanent Judicial Commission General Assembly, the highest court in the denomination. In May, the court unanimously rendered a controversial decision that allows Presbyterian ministers to bless same-sex couples and to conduct the services in Presbyterian churches. The issue of blessings – sometimes called marriages – of same-sex couples will be on the front burner of the General Assembly in Long Beach, Calif., June 24-July 1. Three overtures that would prohibit the services are on the docket. Mendenhall is a graduate of Austin College, Presbyterian School of Christian Education, San Francisco Theological Seminary, and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She served as co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Victoria, Texas, before going to Westminster, where she has headed the staff since 1991. Mendenhall is married to Charles Mendenhall, president of the Presbyterian Children's Homes for the Synod of the Sun. They have two adult children.

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