wfn.org | Jill Martinez Endorsed as Fourth Candidate for Assembly Moderator

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

3-February-2000 00058 
 
    Jill Martinez Endorsed as Fourth Candidate 
    for Assembly Moderator 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A California woman entered the race last weekend as the 
fourth candidate for moderator of the 212th General Assembly which will 
convene in Long Beach, Calif. 
 
    The Rev. Jill Martinez, 49, was endorsed Jan. 29 by the Presbytery of 
Santa Barbara.  Martinez is the area manager in Santa Barbara for Peoples' 
Self-Help Housing Corporation, a non-profit organization that builds and 
renovates housing for low-income families in three California counties. 
 
    A Mexican-American, Martinez rounds out a slate of moderatorial 
candidates - all of whom are racial-ethnics.  She joins Elder Youngil Cho 
of Raleigh, N.C., a Korean (New Hope Presbytery); the Rev. John L. Herndon 
III of Huntsville, Ala., an African-American (North Alabama Presbytery); 
and the Rev. Syngman Rhee of Richmond, Va., a Korean (Atlantic 
Korean-American Presbytery). 
 
    "She's doing exciting things," said Kenneth Working, Santa Barbara 
Presbytery's executive.  "The housing ministry ... comes into rundown areas 
of Santa Barbara and gets the cooperation of everybody from the police 
department to the area churches.  They put in bible studies, 
English-as-second-language courses and train residents in property 
management." 
 
    Martinez said three Presbyterian churches - in Oxnard, Pismo Beach and 
First church in Santa Barbara - persuaded her to consider being a candidate 
for moderator.  "This did not come from me," Martinez said with a laugh, in 
a telephone interview with the Presbyterian News Service.  But she conceded 
that the problem-solving skills she's learned in her housing ministry - 
coupled with her life experience of trying to integrate two cultures - may 
be helpful to the wider denomination as it struggles with deep 
polarization. 
 
    "I've been able to create a comfortable atmosphere when people of 
different views come together and need to problem-solve.  You can't solve a 
problem," Martinez said, "unless you have all the pieces." 
 
    Martinez previously served as the associate executive presbyter for 
mission for the Presbytery of San Diego, where she was responsible for 20 
mission projects in San Diego and Imperial Counties, as well as in Baja, 
Calif.  The programs served the poor, homeless and military families in 
crisis.  She also staffed community teams for strategic planning and worked 
in fund development for a Presbyterian orphanage in Mexico and for new 
church development. 
 
    Nationally, Martinez has served as a member of the Council on 
Presbyterian Seminaries, the Financial Issues Task Force of the General 
Assembly and as a keynote speaker for the Presbyterian Women's Gathering, 
with Justo and Catherine Gonzales. She chaired the committee to fund and 
develop the Spanish Language Presbyterian Hymnal and is a former governing 
body member of the National Council of Churches. 
 
    She has a bachelor of arts in sociology from the University of Hawaii, 
a master of divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary and is 
a doctor of ministry candidate there as well.  Her research is focused on 
the "Mestizaje" process, where people of differing cultures come together 
and form new cultural identities. 

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