LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Stated Clerk Nomination Committee (SCNC), elected at the 217th General Assembly in 2006 in Birmingham, AL, is now accepting applications for the position of General Assembly stated clerk, the top ecclesiastical post in the 2.3-million-member denomination.
Next summer’s 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, will elect the successor to the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, who announced last month that he will not seek a fourth three-year term. Kirkpatrick was first elected stated clerk in 1996 and is only the second General Assembly stated clerk elected since Presbyterian reunion in 1983.
According to Stephen Grace, a Beulah, MI, elder who serves on the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and is chair of the SCNC, the stated clerk “is an officer of the General Assembly, serves as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) representative to ecumenical and interfaith bodies, and is the chief executive officer of the Office of General Assembly.”
Applicants must be a PC(USA) Elder or Minister of Word and Sacrament. The committee will receive applications over a three-month period, Sept. 23 through Dec. 23 — the deadline set by the Standing Rules of the General Assembly.
The committee will review applications and interview candidates for the Stated Clerk position from January-March 2008, and announce its nominee by April 22, 2008 — 60 days prior to the convening of the Assembly on June 21.
Only one candidate will be nominated by the committee, though applicants not selected as the committee’s nominee may be “nominated from the floor” under procedures set forth in the Standing Rules.
An application form, Stated Clerk Position Description, General Assembly Standing Rules and other information are available on the SCNC web page or by contacting the staff resource person to the committee, the Rev. Carol McDonald, co-executive of the Synod of Lincoln Trails, 1100 W. 42nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46208 (phone: 800-566-5996).
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