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Note #8125 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

GAC honors 2 for church service
04085
February 14, 2004

GAC honors 2 for church service

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE-Two former national staff members of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
were recognized here on Feb. 13 during the regular winter meeting of the
General Assembly Council (GAC). Acting on the recommendation of the National
Ministries Division Committee (NMDC), the GAC commended the ministries of the
Rev. Floyd N. Rhodes Jr. and the Rev. A. Michael Warren.

	Rhodes served for nearly two years as the PC(USA)'s interim associate
director of higher education in the National Ministries Division before
retiring last month.

	"Floyd has served with distinction, providing stability during a
transitional period, supplying capable and competent management, and offering
spiritual leadership and guidance to the organization as a whole," NMDC said
in its recommendation.

	Warren left the PC(USA)'s national staff at the end of last year
after serving in Churchwide Personnel Services (CPS) since Jan. 2001. While
with CPS, he provided consultation, training and resources to presbytery
committees on ministry (COMs), as well as to ministers and congregations. He
is now interim pastor of East Brentwood Presbyterian Church in East
Brentwood, TN.

	"One of Mike's special contributions has been to emphasize 'Building
Healthy Pastoral Relationships,' recognizing that the COM is called to be the
steward of pastoral relationships," NMDC said.

	Rhodes has been an assistant pastor in New York and pastor of
congregations in Los Angeles, Princeton, NJ, Wilmington, DE and Cleveland,
OH. He also has worked for the Chicago Presbytery and the Presbytery of
Greater Atlanta.

	Rhodes served on the GAC for six years and was a commissioner to the
"re-uniting General Assembly of 1983. He was vice moderator of the 211th
Assembly in Fort Worth, TX, in 1999.

	He also is a former adjunct professor at the Interdenominational
Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, where he taught Presbyterian Church
history and polity to students of Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminar.

	Warren earned a M.Div. degree from Union Theological Seminary and
Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA, and a Doctorate
of Ministry from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. He has served as
pastor of Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church in Huntington, WV, and as an
associate executive presbyter of Salem Presbytery.ght-wing militias as well
as government forces, one Protestant pastor was killed last year, and another
was kidnapped.

	"This (rumored arrest of Esquivia) is unconfirmed,
through-the-grapevine information ... that there is a move afoot to arrest
him," said Lisa Wright, an analyst employed by CWS.

	Wright said the government of Colombian President Alvara Uribe has
stepped up pressure on human-rights workers, and violence against church
workers in particular seems to be increasing.

	Justapaz said it got wind of a plot to have former guerrilla
combatants testify against Esquivia and to "doctor" a video tape digitally to
make it look as if he presided at a FARC meeting.

	To Wright, the irony is that Esquivia belongs to the Mennonite
Church, a denomination of pacifists.

	That is one of the points CWS Executive Director John L. McCullough
made in a recent letter to Uribe.

	"We understand that Mr. Esquivia is in grave danger of being accused
of membership in FARC, the guerrilla movement, and as such is subject to
arrest," he wrote, although "his membership in the Mennonite Church would
preclude his partaking in violent activities."

	McCullough said that Esquivia's activities in partnership with CWS
include food distribution, refugee resettlement and support, and efforts to
improve housing and sanitation in refugee camps.

	The Presbyterian Church of Colombia has opposed the government's
strategy of indicting and arresting peacemakers and defenders of human
rights, who are "suffering persecution, slander, unjust condemnation, and the
very death that Jesus suffered."

	The Rev. Milton Mejia, executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church
of Colombia, said there is intense media coverage when rights workers are
arrested, but none when the charges are dropped months later.

	"The idea of the government is to show how successful they are in
capturing guerrillas - that makes a big impact on public opinion," he said.
"And it makes people afraid that those who work for peace will be arrested.
In the religious context, it is very scary."

	Esquivia said of the government: "They know I am a Mennonite. And
they also know that the FARC killed a person from our group (Rev. Gabriel
Montes) in this same region. ...

	"In the past year, 45 pastors have been assassinated in Colombia."

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