wfn.org | Indiana Pastor and Long Island Layperson Join Race for Moderator

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

Reply-To: wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>
30-September-1998 
98319 
 
    Indiana Pastor and Long Island Layperson 
    Join Race for Moderator 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The Rev. Walter J. Ungerer, pastor of First Presbyterian 
Church of Kokomo, Ind., and C.W. Kim, a layperson from Long Island 
Presbytery, have been endorsed as candidates for moderator of the 211th 
General Assembly (1999), which meets June 19-26 in Fort Worth, Texas. 
 
    Kim, who if elected will be the first Asian American to head the 
2.6-million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as moderator, was endorsed 
Sept. 21.  Ungerer was endorsed by Wabash Valley Presbytery the following 
day. 
 
    They join the Rev. Frank Diaz, recently retired interim executive 
director of the General Assembly Council, as announced candidates for the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s top elected post.  Diaz was endorsed earlier 
in September by Grace Presbytery. 
 
    Kim, a Korean-American educator, is an elder in Setauket Presbyterian 
Church on Long Island, New York.  He has served as a member of the Council 
of Long Island Presbytery and as vice moderator of the presbytery and 
moderator of the Synod of the Northeast. He was a commissioner to the 1998 
General Assembly, serving as moderator of the Assembly Committee on 
Pensions, Benefits and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. 
 
    Kim is professor emeritus of microbiology and medicine at the State 
University of New York at Stony Brook.  An internationally renowned 
academic, he is the author of more than 100 medical and scientific papers 
and books. 
 
    Kim's father was an ordained minister and his wife, Soo, is also a 
third-generation Christian, her grandfather and father having been ordained 
as Presbyterian ministers. 
 
    Ungerer has been at the Kokomo church for 22 years.  A graduate of New 
Brunswick (N.J.) Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary, 
he previously served four pastorates in New York, New Jersey and Ohio. 
Twice a commissioner to the General Assembly (1982 and 1991), Ungerer has 
also served as vice moderator and moderator of his presbytery, as well as 
chair of its Permanent Judicial Commission.  He has served as an officer of 
the Synod of Lincoln Trails. He also served for six years on the General 
Assembly Council, completing that service in 1997. 
 
    Ungerer has been active in the renewal movement within the Presbyterian 
Church, serving as a board member and then as president of Presbyterians 
United for Biblical Concerns, a forerunner of Presbyterians For Renewal. 
 
    Ungerer and his wife, Janet, have three children and four 
grandchildren.  In 1989, he was the recipient of a heart transplant. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to wfn-news-request@wfn.org