wfn.org | Gary Torrens Is Named Middle Governing Body Relations Coordinator

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

14-September-1999 
99301 
 
    Gary Torrens Is Named 
    Middle Governing Body Relations Coordinator 
 
Joint GAC-OGA Appointment Begins Nov. 1 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Gary D. Torrens, longtime executive presbyter for East 
Iowa Presbytery, has been named coordinator for governing body relations of 
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), effective Nov. 1. 
 
    Torrens appointment was announced Sept. 14 by General Assembly stated 
clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick and General Assembly Council executive 
director John Detterick.  Torrens will report jointly to Kirkpatrick and 
Detterick. 
 
    Torrens seems uniquely suited to his new position, where he will be a 
liaison between synods and presbyteries and General Assembly staff.  Since 
1979 he has been executive for East Iowa Presbytery, which includes 85 
churches.  Prior to that he served on the staff of the Synod of the 
Northeast.  Torrens has also served as an associate pastor and as adjunct 
faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and Dubuque 
Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. 
 
    "If we are to serve the church effectively we must do it in partnership 
with the middle governing bodies," said Detterick.  "This position is an 
important part of that process.  The governing body relations coordinator 
will help make sure that the work we do in Louisville compliments and 
supports the work being done in presbyteries and synods to serve 
congregations." 
 
    Kirkpatrick praised Torrens.  "Gary has a tremendous ability to relate 
to people and has worked with persons from a wide variety of backgrounds," 
he noted.  "That is important because much of the work of this new position 
will be to strengthen one-on-one relationships throughout the church." 
 
    The position Torrens fills was created in response to recommendations 
of the 1996 Quadrennial Review Committee and a subsequent Special Committee 
on Middle Governing Body Relationships.  The joint OGA-GAC accountability 
is a new wrinkle.  A similar middle governing body relations position 
lodged exclusively in the GAC was never refilled after Mary Ann Lundy was 
forced out of it in 1994 following the 1993 Re-Imagining Conference 
controversy. 

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