Bolbach, 61, is a lawyer and an elder at First Church in Arlington. She also has served as co-moderator of the General Assembly Form of Government Task Force — both the task force that reported to the General Assembly in 2008, and a new task force, which combined most of the members of the first task force with some new additions. That new Form of Government task force will report to the assembly when it meets in Minneapolis in July.
Bolbach grew up as a Lutheran in Pennsylvania (where she had a rabbit named Calvin, a guinea pig named Pope and a hamster called Luther). After graduating from a Lutheran-affiliated college, Wittenberg University, in Springfield, Ohio, she moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown University Law Center.
In Washington, Bolbach got involved with New York Avenue Church, attracted by its commitment to social outreach. She volunteered in the church’s tutoring program for inner-city children and eventually joined the New York Avenue congregation, being ordained there as a deacon and an elder, and serving as clerk of session. In 1997, she served as a commissioner to the 209th General Assembly.
Bolbach also has experience in leadership at the presbytery level — serving over the years as moderator of National Capital Presbytery; as chair of its Committee on Ministry; as chair of its council; and as its interim general presbyter.
In her professional life, Bolbach is executive vice-president and corporate secretary of BNA, Inc., an employee-owned firm that operates specialized news services in the legal, legislative, regulatory, and economic development fields. She also served during the 1980s as a foster parent to a teenager.
On her Web site, Bolbach writes that people have frequently asked, “Are you out of your mind?” when she tells them she wants to serve now as General Assembly moderator.
But Bolbach also writes that she wants to engage the church in significant questions about its future, including the critical-but-basic question of “who, and what, is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)” at this time. “Does a denomination still make sense, and still have value, in a 21st century world?”
Bolbach writes, “it’s a simple choice, really: if we don’t change, we die.”
