wfn.org | Moderator disarms press

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

June 15, 1997 
 
GA97016                 Moderator Disarms Press 
 
SYRACUSE--Moderator Patricia G. Brown came  down the back stairs at the 
Convention Center to the first official gathering after her election: a 
Saturday night press conference, and handled it with clarity and aplomb. 
 
    An overflow group of news people from church and secular press found 
her with controlled excitement and quiet confidence as she faces her week 
in Syracuse and her year on the road for the Presbyterian Church USA. 
 
    When asked her priorities for the year, she stated them firmly: 
Multiculturalism, practicing fellowship to lead to spiritual discernment in 
order to be a connectional church." A second question was similar: what 
would she like to say to the church she is to serve?   That we are family, 
brothers and sisters, God has put us together and we're going to have to 
behave!" There was enough maternal accent on the word  behave" to draw a 
follow up question: "What does 'behave' mean?" The reply was quick: "We are 
blood brothers and sisters, we all take communion, we need to act like 
that." 
 
    She had won votes with a mock-threat to the commissioners:  If you 
don't want to work, don't elect me," so she was asked to spell that out as 
to what that meant: "The main thing has to be the main thing," she replied, 
indicating that extraneous matters would not be allowed to impede the 
Assembly's process. 
 
    When asked to critique the long and stressful day required of 
moderatorial candidates, she was not demanding, had no changes to offer. 
In fact, she reported, she had enjoyed the whole day -- so that when she 
came to answering the questions posed to candidates by commissioners, she 
was ready to enjoy it: "I found I really like those people." 
 
    Moderator Brown seemed to have carried over that same attitude to the 
press conference, whose reporters seemed disarmed by her engaging 
directness. None of the questions were hostile or had sharp edges; after a 
very few minutes her proud family was brought into the room for pictures, 
and shortly thereafter they left for the next engagement in a busy evening. 
 
Houston Hodges 

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