Salt Lake City — The 226th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) affirmed 420-2 the nomination of Jihyun Oh as stated clerk of the General Assembly, succeeding J. Herbert Nelson, who filled the seat for seven years and concluded his term in April 2023.
Oh, a 1.5 generation Korean American born in South Korea and raised in Kansas, is the first woman of color to serve in the highest ecclesial office of the PC(USA), Nelson being the first person of color to be stated clerk in the denomination’s 236-year history.
Bronwen Boswell has served as interim stated clerk since Nelson’s June 2023 departure. When Oh takes the reins on August 1, 2024, Boswell will return to her duties as the general presbyter and stated clerk for the Presbytery of Shenandoah, from which she was given leave.
The Stated Clerk Nominating Committee (SCNC), charged with bringing a nominee 300 days before GA, was elected by the 225th GA (2022) and interviewed nine candidates, according to SCNC chairperson Sallie Watson, a teaching elder from the Presbytery of Mission. Referring to the SCNC, Watson told the assembly, “These guys are rockstars!”
“At each step of the journey, the cream kept rising,” Watson said as she spoke to the assembly about the process of selecting Oh.
Watson recalled, “Someone along the way said to me that Jihyun is always the smartest person in the room, any room. … We believe that she is the right person to lead us through the uncharted waters that lie ahead of us in the next few years.”
Upon being nominated, Oh addressed the assembly, “I love this church — for who we have been, warts and all; for who we are now; and who we will become as we faithfully discern God’s call for us.”
Oh addressed directly the challenges and transitions the PC(USA) and other denominations have endured in recent years and over the last several GAs during and since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been asking questions,” Oh said, “about who we are and what we are to be about in God’s world at this time and place. I hope that we, the PC(USA), will keep doing our own work to accept and clarify both who we are and when and where we are. Knowing who we are can help us identify and shed forms, habits, and assumptions that no longer fit or serve us, decluttering of sorts.”
Referencing Marie Kondo, a Japanese professional organizer trained in the KonMari method, Oh said, “Rather than simply finding a way to get rid of stuff, (Kondo) advised people to thank an item for its usefulness and the joy it gave at a point in time before letting it go.”
“What are the things within our ecclesial lives that were once useful when things were different but are no longer useful and even sap us of joy and gratitude toward God?” Oh asked.
“Instead of continuing to lug those things, those memories, those legacies around, and shoving them into unused rooms, could we intentionally take stock, give thanks to God for those things that helped us grow and mature and be faithful at that time, and then let them go so that we can attend to the things that energize us and help us now?
“I love this church — for who we have been, warts and all; for who we are now; and who we will become as we faithfully discern God’s call for us.” — Jihyun Oh
“And having been freed from our clutter, I hope we can be free to breathe. Be free to recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit, be free to participate more energetically and faithfully in God’s mission and ministry in the world, and be free to welcome new people and new ways of being into our churches.”
Oh said, “Knowing who we are can give us the grounding need to be truly who we are called to be and become, instead of holding tightly to the forms that we used to define us. I hope that we will continue to shift from lamenting the loss of the church’s central and leadership role in society and our communities, and befriend the hopeful possibilities of our liminal marginality.”
“If we could see the possibilities of the margins,” Oh said, “might that empower some and free others to see new ways of being church now and into the future? Might it free some from the burden of maintaining dominance or trying to get back to the center so that we might be free to follow where God leads, wherever that may be? … Might it help us to confess our own complicity in violence and oppression when that has been the case and critique more lovingly and truthfully our need for repentance? Might it help us to experience for ourselves God’s deliberative good news?”
“If we could see the possibilities of the margins, might that empower some and free others to see new ways of being church?” — Jihyun Oh
There were no questions for the committee from commissioners. Only one question was asked of the nominee: an invitation to participate in the 100th anniversary of Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center in Lake Tahoe, California. Oh responded that she had already been contacted and was planning to attend.
Immediately after the election, Oh returned to the assembly hall and was greeted with a standing ovation. GA co-Moderators CeCe Armstrong and Tony Larson officiated a service of installation during which Oh answered the constitutional questions.
Oh earned undergraduate degrees in biology and German studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996, and a Master of Science in Finance from Florida International University in 2001. She earned her Master of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in 2006 and was ordained as a teaching elder by the Presbytery of Tropical Florida on behalf of the Presbytery of Chicago to serve as associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Since ordination, Oh has served the PC(USA) extensively. After leaving First Presbyterian Church in 2009, Oh served as hospital staff chaplain, interim pastor and head of staff, member of the PC(USA) Foundation Board, committee moderator and vice-moderator at the 221st and 222nd GAs, presbytery moderator, and, since 2019, director of Mid Council Ministries and associate stated clerk in the Office of the General Assembly (OGA).
