wfn.org | Freda Gardner Elected Moderator on Second Ballot

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

GA99021 
19-June-1999 
 
                 Freda Gardner Elected Moderator  
                         on Second Ballot 
 
 
 FORT WORTH-The only woman candidate for Moderator of the 211th General 
Assembly, Elder Freda A. Gardner, was elected on the second ballot with 270 
votes.  She led the voting on the first ballot, but attained the majority 
needed on the second. 
     A former Princeton Seminary professor of Christian education, she was 
applauded along with the other three candidates for doing an outstanding 
job of addressing concerns of the Assembly through statements and responses 
to questions.  The other candidates, Frank Diaz, Charles Kim and Walter 
Ungerer, received significant support in the voting process, but Freda 
Gardner was the clear choice to lead the denomination in the coming year. 
     Gardner was nominated by K. C. Ptomey, minister commissioner from 
Middle Tennessee Presbytery, who told commissioners that Freda Gardner is a 
person who sits at many tables, whose distinguishing characteristics are 
wisdom and humor and who can "help us make the connection we need between 
head and heart."   
     Speaking to the Assembly, Gardner said that if elected she would tell 
the "amazing story of the Presbyterian Church....not the story of what 
divides us but the stories of the many ways in which Christian ministry is 
being carried out."  She also promised to encourage renewed commitment to 
prayer: "to gather in stillness to hear the voice that can lead us to 
wholeness, the glory that is Christ's and our privilege to witness to it."   
     "When we know that it is God who gives gifts to us, why do we have a 
hard time believing that the gifts are given for the common good?"  she 
asked.  "The gifts of God are for all the people of God," she affirmed.  
     Justice for all, unity in Christian community, caring for children and 
affirmation of the younger generation as the church of today as well as 
tomorrow comprised the views of all four candidates. 
     Gardner said she is not personally concerned about Y2K.  "It is not 
our call to project what is going to happen in the next millennium," she 
said, in answer to a question about the future.  "We just need to remember 
what has been said: "You will be my people; and I will be your God," she 
added.   
     "We need to find new ways to talk   about what bothers us about 
ordination issues," she said.  " We need to learn to listen.  I think we 
can do that and then live with it until the truth breaks through and we are 
all the better for it, " the new Moderator assured the Assembly.    
 
By Jane Hines  

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