Last week, I had the opportunity to catch up with co-moderator of the 223rd General Assembly, Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri. I spoke with her on the campus of Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, where she had preached in chapel, participated in the advisory committee of the Sygman Rhee Global Missions Center for Christian Education and met with members of the Presbytery of the James. Cintrón-Olivieri had just come from helping lead a CREDO conference at Mo-Ranch and was headed to St. Simon Island, Georgia, for a Presbyterian Women’s gathering.
We discussed her overall impressions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), her hopefulness and joy at much of what she sees and her eagerness for the church to stop reciting the narrative of decline and instead embrace the reality of our ongoing reformation. She relayed that she shared with members of the Presbytery of the James that Presbyterians need to “relax. Just relax.” She said people of faith have no reason to doubt God’s promises and providence. A visit to the rare book room of the Union Presbyterian Seminary library where she donned white gloves and looked at documents from several centuries ago reminded Cintrón-Olivieri of all the change the church has experienced and yet how the church continues to evolve and serve.
One of the many sources of hope and joy Cintrón-Olivieri mentioned came out of her experience as a small group leader at Presbyterian Youth Triennium over the summer. She shared that her favorite theologian was her grandfather, and after hearing the youth of her Triennium small group discuss the Bible and faith, those young Presbyterians were now also among her favorite theologians. “The church,” she said, “is in good hands.”
Cintrón-Olivieri, along with co-moderator Cindy Kohlmann, travel extensively representing the PC(USA), and this, too, she sees as a gift of the office. Seeing the wide variety of ministry in presbyteries and congregations supports her belief that the PC(USA) is indeed, as often said by stated clerk J. Herbert Nelson, “not dying, but reforming.” An experience in San Joaquin Presbytery in California particularly struck her as indicative of this reformation within the denomination: Congregations worship in a multitude of languages and have active partnerships with ministries such as Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM), whose mission is “sharing Christ’s love to build communities of hope with new Americans.” She shared a video with me of some of her time there, one of many short videos she posts of the places she visits.
Despite a hectic schedule filled with speaking, preaching and countless conversations, Cintrón-Olivieri, a self-defined extrovert, continues to exude joy, hope and gratitude for the opportunity to represent the 223rd General Assembly.
