PITTSBURGH, July 1, 2012–The first challenge of Neal Presa’s term as moderator of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed quickly Sunday afternoon as the commissioners confirmed his choice for vice moderator, teaching elder Tara Spuhler McCabe of National Capital Presbytery.
Sixty percent of the commissioners present voted in favor of McCabe’s election, and she was then installed as vice moderator. Prior to that vote, a motion to suspend the rules to allow debate on her election did not garner the necessary two-thirds majority, although more than half of the commissioners present voted in favor of it.
McCabe made headlines recently when she acknowledged that in April she had signed the marriage license of two women who married in the District of Columbia and at whose ceremony she had officiated.
Presa says that he and McCabe disagree on that issue, but that they could model for the PC(USA) a way to work together despite theological disagreements.
