wfn.org | Kirkpatrick elected overwhelming to second term as stated clerk

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Note #6089 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

30-June-2000
GA00139

	Kirkpatrick elected overwhelming to second term as stated clerk

	by Alexa Smith

LONG BEACH, June 30 – The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick was elected to a second
term as stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) by an overwhelming vote and was installed to resounding applause.

	"Friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart," Kirkpatrick said, after
reaching the plenary platform with his wife, daughter, granddaughter and a
bevy of associated stated clerks from his first four-year term in the Office
of the General Assembly.

	The 427-74 vote came minutes after Kirkpatrick and his opponent, the Rev.
Winfield "Casey" Jones of Pearland, Texas, took questions from commissioners
and youth advisory delegates.

	A newcomer to the national scene, Jones announced his candidacy for stated
clerk during Holy Week, running his campaign on the premise that the
denomination has neglected the confessional section of its constitution
known as the Book of Confessions.  The book contains 11 creeds, confessions
and catechisms drafted by the church-catholic over the centuries.

	Kirkpatrick was installed by Moderator Syngman Rhee, while General Assembly
Council Executive Director John Dettrick stood nearby.  Kirkpatrick called
Detterick his "partner" in ministry.

	The Assembly's Stated Clerk Candidate Review Committee recommended
Kirkpatrick to commissioners as the "more qualified candidate" after
reviewing paperwork submitted by both candidates, hearing advocates for both
and interviewing the two men jointly for two hours.  The committee's report
described Kirkpatrick as "diligent in planning, gentle in guidance and firm
in conviction," with "exceptional skill in the administrative function of
the duties of the stated clerk as the chief executive officer of the General
Assembly."

	Members of the Stated Clerk Candidate Review Committee included 10 randomly
chosen commissioners and nine members of the original committee that
re-nominated Kirkpatrick after his performance review months ago.

	Responding to a question that probably illustrated the starkest contrast
between the two candidates, Kirkpatrick told the Assembly that he understood
his role as clerk to be to uphold the boundaries of Presbyterian polity and
theology, but to simultaneously "lift up the things that unite us in Christ
more than lay out the things that divide us."

	Jones took a harder line.  "We talk much about the center of the church. 
But a center demands a circumference.  And there are certain things we
believe as Presbyterians," he said, noting that other communions may hold
other standards, but those standards do not articulate what is Presbyterian.

	When a commissioner from Grand Canyon Presbytery asked what the most
important qualifications of a stated clerk are and how each candidate's life
reflected those, Kirkpatrick drew a laugh when he said his training as a
baseball umpire probably prepared him best.  He then identified a "deep
conviction that God is at work in the PC(USA), a "fundamental sense" of
fairness, a "pastor's heart" for congregations and the simultaneous
commitments to pray for the church while willing to be "changed" personally
by the Holy Spirit.
				
	Again, Jones drew a firmer line.  "There are two issues," he said,
referring to theological and ideological splits that have driven debates
Assembly after Assembly.  "The clerk needs to be procedurally fair. ...

	"But," Jones said, "one side is in the Book of Order and one side isn't."

	Jones also fielded a question about whether churches ought to be permitted
to withhold per capita funds, a charge that had been reported early in the
Assembly about Jones' Pearland congregation.  He said his own church had
never withheld per capita monies.  Earlier in the week he told the News
Service of the General Assembly that his Session had voted to redirect some
mission dollars in1999, but total giving to the PC(USA) mission had actually
grown as the congregation's budget grew.

	Kirkpatrick told commissioners that he'd dealt with this issue more than he
liked as the denomination's clerk.  He chooses, he said, not to use
"regulatory threats" to require payment of per capita, but rather to
"implore" congregations to rally behind PC(USA) ministries.  Kirkpatrick
said his administration has been committed to rebuilding "a sense of trust."

	After Kirkpatrick's installation, he invited Jones to the podium to pray.

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