wfn.org | PCUSA information on Civil Union/Christian Marriage Committee released

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

This story available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09098<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09098

Biographical information on Civil Union/Christian Marriage Committee members released

13-member group mandated by 218th General Assembly

> by Bethany Furkin
> Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE ¯ The Office of the General Assembly has
released biographical information on the 13 Presbyterians
named yesterday (Feb. 5) to the General Assembly's Special
Committee to Study Issues of Civil Unions and Christian
Marriage.

Last summer's 218th General Assembly directed Moderator
Bruce Reyes-Chow to "appoint a special committee,
representing the broad diversity and theological balance of
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), to study the following ...
including any policy recommendations growing out of the
study:

-The history of the laws governing marriage and civil
union, including current policy debates;

-How the theology and practice of marriage have developed
in the Reformed and broader Christian tradition;

-The relationship between civil union and Christian
marriage;

-The effects of current laws on same-gender partners and
their children;

-The place of covenanted same-gender partnerships in the
Christian community.

The special committee is to make its report to the 219th
General Assembly (2010) in Minneapolis. Committee members
are:

The Rev. Clayton F. Allard: Allard is a member of National
Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. A Christian convert,
he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the College of Wooster in
1986 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1989. While
there, he was awarded the John Galloway Prize in Expository
Preaching.

The Rev. Emily J. Anderson: Since 1999, Anderson has been
pastor of New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville,
TN. She is co-author of a confirmation curriculum based on
the Study Catechism and was co-moderator of the Task Force
on Priorities and Structures for the Presbytery of East
Tennessee. Anderson has also served on the Committee on
Ministry and Committee on Preparation in the Tampa Bay and
East Tennessee presbyteries.

The Rev. Margaret Aymer Oget: Aymer is assistant professor
of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological
Center in Atlanta, which includes the PC(USA)-related
Johnson C. Smith Seminary. A member of the Presbytery of
Greater Atlanta, she serves on the Health Committee and the
Committee for Preparation on Ministry. Aymer is the author
of "First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass,
Darkness and the Epistle of James" and "Repairers of the
Breach," a Bible study written for the 2006 PHEWA
conference. In 2011, she will author the Horizons Bible
Study on the Beatitudes.

Elder Luis Antonio (Tony) De La Rosa: De La Rosa is
associate counsel for L.A. Health Care Plan. As a civil
litigator, his career has focused on protecting the rights
of traditionally disadvantaged people. He is also clerk of
Session at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, a Spanish/English
bilingual congregation in Los Angeles. On the national
level, De La Rosa has been a member of the Advisory
Committee on Litigation and the Special Committee on
Church-wide Compensation Policy. He is a graduate of Yale
Divinity and Law schools.

The Rev. Steve Hancock: Hancock has been pastor of Second
Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, AR, since 2001. He has
also served as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in
Nashville, TN, and as dean of students and professor at
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he
earned his M.Div. degree. He has also taught at St. Meinrad
School of Theology and Vanderbilt Divinity School. He
earned his Master of Theology from Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary.

Emily W. Miller: Miller is a third-year Master of Divinity
student at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. A
2005 graduate of Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, VA,
she served as a Young Adult Volunteer with the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) in Miami before entering seminary.

Elder Katina Miner: Miner works as an employment lawyer in
San Francisco. A member of Mission Bay Community Church
there, she serves as the church's elder of administration
and support. Miner is a native of Minneapolis and attended
college in Chicago and law school at the University of
California at Berkeley.

Elder Stephen L. Salyards: Salyards is an IT manager,
earthquake geologist and adjunct professor in the
Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of
California, Los Angeles. He attends La Verne Heights
Presbyterian Church in La Verne, CA. Salyards has served
San Gabriel Presbytery as a member and chair of the
Committee on Ministry, as elder commissioner to the 209th
General Assembly (1997) and as moderator of the presbytery.
He is currently moderator of the Synod of Southern
California and Hawaii.

The Rev. Tracie Mayes Stewart: Stewart earned her Master of
Divinity from Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian
School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA, and was
ordained in 1995. Her husband is also a Presbyterian
minister, and she served as a new church development
co-pastor with him until her children were born. She now
works part-time in educational ministry and has written
three Bible studies. Stewart served as a commissioner to
the 212th General Assembly (2000).

The Rev. James (Jim) Szeyller, chair: Szeyller is pastor at
Carmel Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC. A graduate of
Princeton Theological Seminary, Szeyller is particularly
interested in using missional church theology as a tool for
church revitalization and growth.

Rev. William (Bill) Teng: Teng is pastor at Heritage
Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA. Born and raised in
Hong Kong, he is a fourth-generation Presbyterian minister
who has also served congregations in New York, Texas and
Washington, DC. He is a member of the National Capital
Presbytery Council and was moderator of National Capital
Presbytery in 2004. Teng was a candidate for moderator of
the 218th General Assembly (2008).

Elder Lisa Cooper Van Riper: Van Riper is a member of First
Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC, where she has also
served as a teacher, deacon, elder and member of the Pastor
Search Committee. A graduate of Furman University and the
University of South Carolina, Van Riper has career
experience as a teacher, adjunct professor, staffer at
Greenville County Council, interim director of Greenville
YWCA and executive director of Putting Families First, a
social service agency there.

Derrick Weston: Weston is the mission advancement manager
for the Pittsburgh Project, an urban community development
ministry in that city. He earned his Master of Divinity
from San Francisco Theological Seminary and is a candidate
for ministry in Pittsburgh Presbytery. He studied film at
the University of Pittsburgh.

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