wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] New York pastor chosen to lead ACSWP

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8887 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05465
Sept. 7, 2005

New Yorker chosen as ACSWP coordinator

Rev. Christian Iosso, pastor 
and activist, will take office on Oct. 17

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - The Rev. Christian "Chris" Iosso, a New York pastor well-known
in progressive Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) circles, has been named
coordinator of the church's Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy
(ACSWP).

	Iosso, who for the past 12 years has been pastor of Scarborough
Presbyterian Church in Briarcliff, north of New York City, begins his new
work on Oct. 17. He succeeds the Rev. Peter Sulyok, who was fired last
November after leading an ACSWP "fact-finding" trip to the Middle East that
included a televised meeting with leaders of the U.S.-alleged terrorist
organization, Hezbollah.

	Iosso, a member of Hudson River Presbytery - one of the most liberal
in the PC(USA) - is a regular at PC(USA) General Assemblies. He has long
served as a strategist and theoretician for the left-leaning Witherspoon
Society. Over the years he has led a number of church-related teams to
Nicaragua as part of the "Bridges to Community" program.

	Iosso formerly served on the denomination's national staff as
associate for the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment
(MRTI) from 1980 to 1984. He also worked for the National Council of Churches
of Christ as director of its New World Order Project, and for the Board of
World Ministries of the United Church of Christ as associate for its World
Issues Office. 

	Iosso has a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from
Union Theological Seminary in New York. He has done further graduate study at
Columbia University and the New York School of Social Research.

	He has taught Christian ethics at Mercy College in New York and at
Sing Sing Federal Prison in Ossining, NY, in connection with New York
Theological Seminary. 

	A prolific writer, he has been a frequent contributor to Church and
Society magazine, a publication of the PC(USA)'s National Ministries
Division. His articles have included "The Church and Transnational
Corporations" and "A World Made New." He served as content editor for a
special issue on "The Hope and Challenge of Reconciliation Today: 
Reflections on the Confession of 1967 After 35 Years" (May/June 2002). 

	His other publications include book chapters: "Changes in Ecumenical
Public Witness 1967-1990," in The Church's Public Role, edited by former
ACSWP director Deiter Hessel, 1993; and "Reformed Economic Ethics in
Presbyterian General Assembly Statements" in Reformed Faith and Economics,
edited by Presbyterian minister Robert L. Stivers, 1989.

	Iosso is the father of two college-age sons, Caleb and Jacob, and a
15-year- old daughter, Caroline.  

	"We are delighted to have found and hired a person with such in-depth
knowledge of the Advisory Committee's history, policies and procedures," said
Helen Locklear, deputy executive director of the General Assembly Council,
"and we look forward Chris's advancing the work and witness of the
committee."

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