Chantal D. Atnip, a ruling elder who since 2005 has served as treasurer of the Synod of the Trinity, announced in December she will stand for moderator of the 2018 General Assembly.
Now Atnip has revealed who will stand with her for vice moderator: Ken Hockenberry, a minister who is a member of the Presbytery of Chicago and currently serves as interim pastor of Carter-Westminster United Presbyterian Church in Skokie, Illinois.
This makes the first team standing under the traditional moderator and vice moderator model.
Two teams already have announced they intend to stand to serve as co-moderators of the 2018 General Assembly:
Atnip, who lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania, said via email that the Presbytery of Carlisle endorsed her as a candidate for moderator at its Dec. 5 meeting.
Born in France, where her father was stationed in the Air Force, Atnip first became a member of First Presbyterian Church in Vero Beach, Florida, when she was 12.
She majored in mathematics and math education at Florida State University, and has had a varied career, moving in and out of the workplace as her family’s needs changed. She has worked as a computer programmer and analyst; as a systems engineer for IBM; started with a colleague a computer consulting and software development company; worked in marketing and technical writing; and worked as a substitute teacher and math tutor.
She has been involved for years at Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, serving for 18 years on the board of trustees and as the congregation’s longtime treasurer. She has taught Sunday school for junior high school students, run a program for mothers and helped manage a capital campaign. She currently sings in the choir, plays in the handbell choir and serves as clerk of session.
Atnip, 64, said she would bring to the role of moderator a varied religious background. Her father was Catholic; she was involved with a Methodist campus ministry in college; and attended Congregational and United Church of Christ churches when her husband was a surgical resident in Boston.
In biographical information provided to the Office of the General Assembly, Atnip said she felt the call to stand for moderator during a worship service at a synod gathering in April 2016.
Atnip and her husband Robert, who is a vascular surgeon, have two young adult daughters.
Hockenberry, who will stand with her for vice moderator, is a New Jersey native who earned a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and did doctoral coursework at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Before moving to Illinois, Hockenberry served as pastor and co-pastor of Beulah Presbyterian Church in Louisville from 1994 to 2015, and as part time stated clerk of Mid Kentucky Presbytery. He also served as interim field education director for Louisville Seminary.
His wife, Judy Hockenberry, also is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister, serving as associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights in suburban Chicago. The couple has three young adult children.
The 2018 General Assembly will meet in St. Louis June 16-23.
