All along the way, however, there were encouraging signs — from the election of the Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase to the reelection of Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, with the Assembly’s clear rejection of the negative public discourse of two challengers who received the few votes they deserved. The third challenger, Bob Davis, on the other hand, is to be commended. He is devoted to the gospel and to the Presbyterian Church and represents the opposition with integrity and passion. Every establishment needs a challenge and a critic. He is a worthy one.
Cliff Kirkpatrick deserved reelection. His competence, compassion, knowledge and faith were transparent. Yet in this moment of re-affirmation and with the affection of the Assembly for him personally, the Stated Clerk would do well to reach out in trust-building to his responsible critics, and to prove his mettle with new clarity about constitutional fidelity. It’s not that Kirkpatrick has temporized, not at all. But he cannot allow his genial, conciliatory nature to appear to overshadow strict interpretation, especially now when trust among us is tarnished and needs as much rebuilding as possible for the next two years.
All three moderatorial candidates are proven servants of the gospel. Two of them, David McKechnie and K.C. Ptomey, are successful pastors of congregations which have promoted mission and justice, and which have nourished thousands in the faith of Jesus Christ. Each of them told what they had done and would do if elected, and each of them is committed to the healing of our denomination. But in the questions and answers before the election, it was Ufford-Chase who demonstrated in his own life the costs of discipleship and spoke of the risks to be taken if the church is to move forward. It’s not about meetings and promises to reform. It’s about meeting each other across the great divide.
To that end Ufford-Chase asked Patricia Mason of Pittsburgh Presbytery to nominate him. An African-American evangelical, she wondered why he asked her. She does not agree with him on several major issues. He said he wanted her because she represents what he believes is important in ministry. (Under her leadership a “dying” 12-member church has grown to 80 active worshipers.) She said she would pray about his request. After three days she phoned him and said yes. That model, held before the Assembly, was the slam-dunk that elected him. It speaks to the heart of all who long for liberation from our destructiveness, and seek a truthful reconciliation that comes from God.
Likewise, moderatorial nominee Ptomey’s opening statement gave the same signal. He called us to remember our baptism, and through the hard, narrow road ahead, to remember that we all belong to Jesus Christ, and not to the lesser lords of our finely honed agendas.
May every baptized and ordained servant of the Crucified step into a holy moment of silence, and reach out across the great divide to a faithful Presbyterian with whom we disagree. As the moderator said after the vote that preserved the status quo on ordination, “Jesus calls us to take up our cross and walk.” Indeed we, all of us, have a cross to carry together. Will we dare?
Posted July 8, 2004 
O. Benjamin Sparks is interim editor of The Outlook and pastor, Second church, Richmond, Va.
Send your comment on this editorial to The Outlook.
Please give your full name and hometown and state.
