wfn.org | Whirlwind year sweeps TSAD into Assembly

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

Note #6578 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

10-June-2001
GA01023

Whirlwind year sweeps TSAD into Assembly

by Bill Lancaster

LOUISVILLE, June 10 -- For Chineta Goodjoin (pronounced good-john), a
Theological Student Advisory Delegate (TSAD) from Johnson C. Smith
Theological Seminary, it's been a whirlwind year that has carried her into
the 213th General Assembly meeting here.   An established speech therapist
with the Cherokee (S.C.) County school system, Chineta sensed a call to
ministry through her involvement as an elder, teacher and liturgist at the
Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Gaffney, S.C.

	She battled her way through Greek school last summer while continuing her
work at Bethesda and attending to her father, who had developed a brain
tumor.  In the fall, her seminary work began in earnest, she worked in the
school system part-time, began supplying the pulpit at another
African-American church, Walkers Chapel in Reidville, and took on the role
of chair of the Presbytery's Racial Ethnic Cabinet which her father was
unable to continue.  Her husband Reggie, a musician in a band, managed to
adapt to Chineta's do-everything schedule.

	Chineta and her family and friends staged a dinner honoring her father, who
had taught English to generations of students at Spartanburg (S.C.) High
School, while he was still able to receive the accolades.  In Atlanta, she
began to assist in liturgy in the church attended by the Rev. David Wallace,
dean of Johnson C. Smith, and actually received a standing ovation the first
time she preached there.

	When her father died, she spoke at the service in a packed Bethesda Church
attended by Wallace, several pastors, Presbytery staff, school colleagues,
family, friends and the mayor of Gaffney.  A couple of weeks ago, she began
her work as an intern at the John Knox Presbyterian Church in Greenville,
S.C., a large predominately-white church.

	She had visited the General Assembly meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in 1998,
"but it was boring," she said Sunday after the huge opening worship service.
"It's really meaningful (this year) being a participant and having an active
role."  Her mother and an aunt accompanied her to Louisville.

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