Robert Davis, a minister and lawyer from Escondido, Calif. and the most moderate of the challengers, received 137 votes; L. Rus Howard, a pastor from Venetia, Pa., took 25, and Alex Metherell, a physician, engineer and elder from Laguna Beach, Calif., trailed with 19.
Howard complained that some questions posed to candidates before the vote were pre-scripted, and the Assembly later passed a resolution that could lead to stricter rules about campaigning in future General Assembly meetings. Still, Kirkpatrick’s supporters — the old guard of the church, and the liberal branches — rejoiced in his victory.
“I’m not surprised, I’m very relieved,” said David York, a development officer for Johnson C. Smith Seminary, echoing the sentiment of many other commissioners and observers.
The stated clerk is the chief executive officer of the Office of the General Assembly. The job includes interpreting the Book of Order, the church’s Constitution, and putting on meetings of the General Assembly. Last year, Kirkpatrick earned $121,107 in salary and housing allowance, the second highest salary in the national offices. General Assembly Council executive director John Detterick earned $153,154.
All three challengers tried to elevate what they see as a need for tougher constitutional enforcement by the stated clerk; some commissioners wore pins labeled “ABC,” for Anyone But Cliff.” But bright yellow “Cliff for Clerk” pins were more widespread.
With an impressive slate of endorsements from former moderators and seminary presidents — and especially after Saturday’s election of moderator Rick Ufford-Chase, 40, a buoyant evangelical mission worker popular among liberals in the denomination — Kirkpatrick was widely expected to win.
Candidates submitted written statements earlier this year and were formally introduced before the Assembly Sunday morning. On Friday each candidate made a five-minute speech, and then commissioners posed a series of questions for an hour.
Plainspoken but not inflammatory, Kirkpatrick has used his power as stated clerk more to mediate than to support a particular viewpoint. “The first task of a leader is to inspire hope,” he said. “The first call of a stated clerk is to preserve and defend the Constitution, and I believe we have done exactly that.” He said taking the stronger stance his opponents favor would mean usurping rights of other church entities, such as presbyteries and the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission.
But Metherell accused Kirkpatrick of misleading others about the policies of the denomination and said, “I will not allow those who defy the Constitution to therefore destroy the church.”
Howard likened the stated clerk’s role in defending the Constitution to the role of the Secret Service defending a president. “When John Hinckley shot his gun, the Secret Service didn’t say, ‘Well, we have to remain neutral.’ They put their bodies in the line of fire. Defending the Constitution is an activist role.”
Davis said the stated clerk should give clear procedural guidance but also use the “bully pulpit” to speak out against defiance. His message was by far the most positive of the three challengers. “You’re choosing a leader for the future. Pick someone with vision, with a heart, and with the tools to help the people of the church do the work of the church.”
No one — candidate or questioner — used the word “gay” during the debates. But when the candidates talked about defiance, they were generally referring to ministers and sessions which have taken controversial steps supporting the ordination of gays and lesbians, and same-sex marriage.
The results of the vote mirrored the moderator’s race, in which David McKechnie, the only candidate linked to conservative members of the denomination, received 186 votes on the final ballot — nearly the same amount as the 181-vote total for Kirkpatrick’s three opponents.
Some expressed dismay. Robert R. Kopp, pastor of Bethany church in Loves Park, Ill., and a Howard supporter, called the election “a stunning repudiation of the evangelical position.”
But others saw a brighter future for the denomination.
“It’s good to have an experienced clerk and a young and vivacious moderator, and I think that they will complement each other well,” said Bill Francis, an elder commissioner from Northeast Georgia Presbytery who voted for Kirkpatrick. “All of them had good points. Hopefully the one elected will listen to whatever everybody else said.”
Asked after the election whether the issues raised by his opponents would influence him, Kirkpatrick cited the “deep concern out in the life of the church that we lift up Scripture … that the church’s discipline be held up.
“We do want to take a look and see if there are some ways to strengthen that,” Kirkpatrick. He added that defiance is not the norm, “I think on the whole in the life of the church, that the Constitution is being upheld.”
The Presbyterian Church lost 46,000 members last year, and Kirkpatrick said he will work to help reverse that trend, partly by reaching out to people of all races. “By 2050, there’s going to be no racial ethnic majority in this county. If the Presbyterian church is to be a vital witness … we’ve got to be a church that matches that. That is a critical priority.”
Kirkpatrick said in the press conference that he had seen a copy of the prepared questions mentioned by Howard, but that he had not been involved in preparing them or asked particular commissioners to ask questions. “I think that does happen from time to time. Half the questions were those on the list.”
“I really am grateful to God and grateful to this church for another opportunity to serve as stated clerk in this church for another four years,” he said.
