 
Douglas Oldenburg elected moderator of 210th GA By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman |
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CHARLOTTE – In a second ballot victory, Rev. Douglas Oldenburg, president of Columbia Theological Seminary and former Charlotte minister, was elected moderator of the 210th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Oldenburg, who won 291 votes, was trailed by James Mead with 220 and Richard Hutchison with 18. In the first ballot Oldenburg claimed 259, Mead 219, and Hutchison 54, with no candidate receiving the required majority. But on the second ballot, most of Hutchison’s supporters switched to Oldenburg, carrying him into the winner’s circle. Bringing peace to a badly fractured denomination was a consistent theme throughout the campaign for this highest elected office in the Presbyterian Church (USA). All three candidates urged the General Assembly to give Presbyterians a rest from legislative battles over the issue of human sexuality, a fight that has kept the denomination in turmoil for more than 20 years. In his five-minute campaign speech Oldenburg told the commissioners that he wanted to be a bridge builder, a strong advocate for education, for children in crisis, and for churchwide adult study on what Presbyterians believe about the authority and interpretation of Scripture. “We are a people of the book,” he said, “and how we interpret it underlies our mission and our differences.” Mead, minister of University Place Presbyterian Church of Tacoma, Wash., told the Assembly that in seeking denominational peace it should not settle for political solutions with the rhetoric of left, right and center. “The center of the church is not the middle, a compromise between extremes,” he said. “The center of the church is Jesus Christ. Let’s move Christward.” Mead suggested three goals that would make the Presbyterian Church (USA) a more Christ-like church: sharing Christ, making disciples, and building racial/ethnic partnerships. Richard Hutchison, minister of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Ind., and a veteran member of numerous national church boards and councils, called on commissioners to “remember the old, old story,” and to be aware of the fact that the front line for telling that story is the congregation. “We have been closing one church a week for the last eleven years,” he said. “We have to learn that congregations are indispensable.” Hutchison’s second focus was unity: “We must focus on what we can do together and less on what divides us,” he said. |
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The Presbyterian Layman, July/August 1998 contents |
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