PHILADELPHIA — More than 1,000 Christian educators have unanimously endorsed an appeal to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leadership to create a mechanism for the ordination of church educators. The vote took place at the annual convention of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) held here Jan. 31 — Feb. 3.
Attendees responded enthusiastically to a report of the APCE cabinet that says, “To ordain persons called to educational ministry affirms the crucial role of Christian education in the life of our church and establishes uniform standards for preparation and accountability.”
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| Sylvia Washer |
Sylvia Washer of San Antonio, Texas, was named APCE’s Christian Educator of the Year. She retired at the end of 2006 after serving 13 years in central Texas as General Presbyter for Mission Presbytery. She served earlier as educator in several churches of New Covenant Presbytery. She has written church school curriculum for the denomination, is co-author of Get Ready! Get Set! WORSHIP! and author of Suggestions for Leaders for the 2004-05 Horizons Bible study, “What She Said.” She is an elder and member of Madison Square Church in San Antonio.
Two other persons received lifetime achievement awards, Jeanne Payne McIver and Connie Nyquist.
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| Jean Payne McIve |
McIver served as educator of Westminster and Fairmont Churches in Dayton, Ohio, and has authored curricula for the Workshop Method, as well as Celebrate, Covenant People, and We Believe.
Nyquist recently retired after serving five years as associate general presbyter of New Covenant Presbytery in the Houston, Texas, area. She began her career as supervisor of the church school at the International Protestant Church of Zürich. She served for 20 years as educator of the Clear Lake Church in Houston prior to being called to the presbytery position.
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| Connie Nyquist |
Guests at the conference included Joe Small, director of the denomination’s Office of Theology, Worship and Education. He attended to engage APCE members in a dialogue on the idea of the “fourth office” for educators (in addition to the three existing ordained offices of minister of Word and Sacrament, elder and deacon.) After defeats at past GAs, the 217th GA in June 2006 referred the matter to the Office of Theology, Worship and Education for study, in anticipation of the 2008 GA.
Major speakers included Frances Taylor Gench, professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia, as plenary lecturer, and the Rev. Bill Carter, pastor of First Church in Clarks Summit, Pa., as preacher.
Dr. Gench provided insights from biblical scholarship to correct untruths that have been propagated about women and Jews. She also tackled topics of popular books, including the Left Behind series and The DaVinci Code.
Carter’s preaching was spiced by his own musical stylings as the jazz pianist and director of the “Presbybop Quartet.”
The theme of the event was Sankofa, named after an African bird. In West Africa, the Akan people assert that the unusual bird shows us that “in order to move into the future one must go back and learn from the past.” A carving of the Sankofa depicts it as flying forward with its head facing back while holding an egg in its big beak to symbolize the future.
