Three of the candidates for moderator of the 2012 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have announced their selections for vice-moderator, should they be elected. All three of the vice-moderator candidates announced so far are teaching elders, as are all five of the candidates for General Assembly moderator.
Robert Austell, who is a teaching elder endorsed by the Presbytery of Charlotte and pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Charlotte, N.C., has chosen as his candidate for vice-moderator Hope Italiano Lee, pastor of Kirkwood Church in Bradenton, Florida. Lee earned a doctor of ministry degree in homiletics from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a master of divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary, and has served as a pastor and youth minister in Florida, Pennsylvania and Georgia. She was one of the preachers at the Fellowship of Presbyterians’ Covenanting Conference, held in Orlando in January.
Susan Davis Krummel, who is a teaching elder endorsed by the Presbytery of Great Rivers and also serves as executive/general presbyter and stated clerk of that presbytery, has selected as her candidate Sanghyuan James Lee. Lee is pastor of the Korean Community Church in Columbia, S.C. and earned a doctor of ministry from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and a master of divinity degree from Yale Divinity School. He has been involved with spiritual formation programs for second-generation Korean Americans in the southeastern U.S.
Neal D. Presa, who is a teaching elder endorsed by the Presbytery of Elizabeth and pastor of Middlesex Church in Middlesex, N.J., has chosen as his candidate for vice-moderator Tara Spuhler McCabe. McCabe is associate pastor at New York Avenue Church in Washington, D.C. and earned a master of divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary. McCabe served as a PC(USA) delegate to the World Council of Churches assembly in Zimbabwe in 1998.
Two other candidates for General Assembly moderator, Randolph “ Randy” Branson of Texas and Janet Edwards of Pittsburgh, have not yet announced their vice-moderatorial picks. Branson has been endorsed by Palo Duro Presbytery, and Edwards is standing for moderator without endorsement from a presbytery.
The 220th General Assembly is scheduled to convene in Pittsburgh on June 30 and to elect its moderator that evening.
