wfn.org | Laird Stuart is first 214th GA moderator candidate

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

Note #7009 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

10-January-2002
02019

Laird Stuart is first 214th GA moderator candidate

San Francisco pastor is former moderator of the Covenant Network

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - The race for moderator of next summer's 214th Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly got its first candidate Jan. 8 when San
Francisco Presbytery endorsed the candidacy of the Rev. Laird Stuart, pastor
of Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco.

The presbytery's vote was 230-121, probably a reflection of Stuart's role as
a former co-moderator of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians - which
supports the removal of the "fidelity and chastity" standard for church
officers - in a presbytery with a sizable number of conservative churches.
Upon his endorsement, Stuart resigned from the board of directors of the
Covenant Network.

Stuart has been pastor at Calvary Church since 1993. Prior to that he served
churches in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

He has served on the board of trustees of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary,
including a term as president, and is currently on the board of San
Francisco Theological Seminary.

Stuart told his presbytery he desires to be moderator of the whole church,
not just a part of it.  He suggested a process of "genuine discussion and
dialogue" as a step toward overcoming misunderstanding and mistrust, saying
in part:	"It is time for us to try anew to talk with one another. We have
spent too much time talking about each other."

Stuart has led efforts to promote such conversations within the PCUSA,
serving on the planning committee for the national Unity in Diversity
conference in 1999, keynoting a dozen regional Unity-in-Diversity
conferences, initiating pastor-theologian dialogues involving conservative
and liberal pastors through the Office of Theology and Worship in
Louisville, and participating in a recent Bible study series with leaders of
the Covenant Network and the Presbyterian Coalition, a conservative
evangelical group that supports the "fidelity and chastity" provision of the
church's Book of Order.

A graduate of Amherst College and Princeton Theological Seminary, Stuart
also earned a D.Min. from Princeton. He is married to the former Virginia
Kirkland. They have three grown daughters.
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