wfn.org | Third Candidate Enters 1998 Moderatorial Race

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

10-December-1997 
97464 
 
    Third Candidate Enters 1998 Moderatorial Race 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--A third candidate for moderator of the 210th General 
Assembly (1998) has entered the race with the endorsement of the Presbytery 
of Olympia. 
 
    The Rev. James E. Mead of Tacoma, Wash., was endorsed by the presbytery 
Nov. 20, just one vote shy of unanimity.  Mead has been pastor and head of 
staff of the University Place Presbyterian Church, a 1,200-member 
congregation in suburban Tacoma, for the past 16 years. 
 
    "The church has been in a time of conflict, struggle and change, and, I 
think, opportunity," Mead told the Presbyterian News Service just after his 
candidacy was announced.  "A lot of exciting things are happening and I 
want to be a part of that." 
 
    Two other candidates are also running for moderator of the upcoming 
Assembly, slated for June 13-20 in Charlotte, N.C.  They are the Rev. 
Richard G. Hutchison, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, 
Ind. (Whitewater Valley Presbytery), and the Rev. Douglas W. Oldenburg, 
president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. (Greater Atlanta 
Presbytery). 
 
    At the national level, Mead served as moderator of the 207th General 
Assembly's Evangelism Committee.  In the Synod of Alaska-Northwest,  Mead 
moderated the committee charged with designing a new synod structure and 
served as a member of the transition team that implemented that structure. 
He has just completed service on the board of trustees of Whitworth College 
in Spokane, Wash., and he is currently a member-at-large of the Presbytery 
of Olympia Council. 
 
    Mead has served congregations in California, Oregon and Washington. 
 
    "For the last 15 years, this church has been in a time of gigantic 
change, a time of real pain.  But there are signs of renewal among us.  In 
part, I bring a sense of renewal," Mead said of his candidacy in a 
denomination beleaguered by conflict.  "I have a commitment to the belief 
that we all belong [in] the same body together, and I have the desire to 
help us move forward." 
 
    Mead and his wife, Carolyn, have two grown sons. 

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