Bill Teng
National Capital Presbytery endorses GA moderator candidate
The
Rev. Bill Teng seeks to restore ‘sense of hope’ in denomination
by Toya Richards
Hill,
Presbyterian News Service
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The Rev. Bill Teng |
LOUISVILLE – November
29, 2007 – A desire to “go back to the basics” and help the
denomination regain hope is what has propelled the Rev. Bill Teng to
stand for the position of moderator of the 218th General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
National Capital
Presbytery endorsed Teng’s candidacy on Tuesday, Nov. 27. Teng
served as moderator of the presbytery in 2004.
“Our denomination at
this time really needs to have a sense of hope,” said Teng, pastor
at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA.
With churches leaving
the PC(USA) and the report of the General Assembly’s Theological
Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church still
unsettling, “there needs to be someone who could stand up and remind
our church what its primary calling is, and that is to go back to
the basics, to put our emphasis on mission and evangelism.”
“Bill has been a
significant leader in this presbytery,” said the Rev. G. Wilson Gunn
Jr., general presbyter. He has worked “tirelessly” at various
issues, especially cross-cultural understanding, he said.
Teng was born in Hong
Kong, China and moved to the United States at the age of 18. He is a
fourth-generation Presbyterian pastor, and said he has a great sense
of “gospel debt” to the denomination that led his great grandfather
to Christianity.
“I look at myself as
a product of Presbyterian mission,” he said.
Teng said he is still
developing his platform of issues, but that he will emphasize
“what’s important to the church,” and what kind of witness it can
have to the world.
He added that one
thing that was particularly “edifying” to him in receiving his
presbytery’s endorsement was the support shown from both
conservative and liberal sides of the denomination.
“I think that really
meant a lot to me,” he said.
Teng’s website >>
www.billteng.com
Presbyterian Outlook’s
report on Bill Teng >>
Bruce Reyes-Chow
Bruce
Reyes-Chow is second candidate for GA moderator
San
Francisco Presbytery endorses new church development pastor
by Jerry L. Van
Marter,
Presbyterian News Service
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|
The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow with his wife,
Elder Robin Pugh; and their three daughters, Evelyn,
Abigail, and Analise.
Photo courtesy of Mission Bay Community
Church |
LOUISVILLE – January
24, 2008 – The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, 38, pastor of San Francisco’s
Mission Bay Community Church and a leader in the “emergent church”
movement, is the second announced candidate to stand for election as
moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 218th General
Assembly (2008) next summer in San Jose, CA.
Reyes-Chow’s
candidacy was endorsed Jan. 15 by San Francisco Presbytery. He joins
the Rev. Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery in standing for
the denomination’s highest elected office.
An ordained
Presbyterian minister since 1995, Reyes-Chow is a graduate of San
Francisco State University and San Francisco Theological Seminary.
He is the grandson of Chinese and Filipino immigrants and was raised
in Sacramento and Stockton, CA.
Reyes-Chow is the
founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, a multi-cultural,
multi-generational New Church Development of San Francisco
Presbytery that makes extensive use of cyberspace to communicate and
conduct its ministry. Reyes-Chow himself is a prolific writer and
blogger, calling himself “pastor/geek/dad/follower of Christ.”
Reyes-Chow is a
highly sought-after speaker who has served the church at levels as
well as in the ecumenical arena. On his campaign blog, he cites at
least five reasons for his candidacy:
• “The
church needs an infusion of positive energy”;
• “The church
needs empowering, Christ-centered leadership”;
• “The church
needs someone who understands the many facets of ministry in the
PCUSA”;
• “The church
needs someone who is not afraid to speak the truth”; and
• “The church
needs a Moderator who can be a healthy presence to our congregations
throughout the denomination.”
“This is not the time
to try to legislate our way out of disagreements,” he told San
Francisco Presbytery before the endorsement, “but to engage in the
hard work of building relationships that are not about convincing
and persuading but of authentic discovery of the voice of Christ
within one another.”
Reyes-Chow’s website >>
www.mod.reyes-chow.com
Presbyterian Outlook’s
report on Bruce Reyes-Chow >>
Carl Mazza
Homeless ministry founder is third candidate for GA moderator
The
Rev. Carl Mazza is endorsed by New Castle Presbytery
by Jerry L. Van
Marter,
Presbyterian News Service
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The Rev. Carl Mazza |
LOUISVILLE – January 25,
2008 – The Rev. Carl Mazza, the founder and leader of Meeting
Ground, a community-based ministry with the homeless and other
marginalized people in Elkton, MD, is the third announced candidate
to stand for moderator of the 218th General Assembly (2008), next
summer in San Jose, CA.
Mazza was endorsed for
the highest elected General Assembly office of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) on Jan. 18 by New Castle Presbytery, based in
Newark, DE.
He joins the Rev.
Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery and the Rev. Bruce
Reyes-Chow of San Francisco Presbytery as candidates to succeed the
Rev. Joan Gray of Atlanta, moderator of the 217th General Assembly
(2006).
Mazza, a graduate of
Princeton Theological Seminary, founded Meeting Ground in 1981. It
now encompasses two shelters, one for women and one for men; a
transitional house; and a rural residential facility for men, women
and children. Meeting Ground also operates a care program for
children and youth and a church-based winter shelter program that
rotates among area churches.
According to Loaves &
Fishes, Meeting Ground’s newsletter, in 2007 the ministry provided
almost 21,000 bednights of emergency and transitional housing,
almost 30,000 meals, and assisted almost 300 persons in the
transition from being homeless. Since its inception, Meeting Ground
has provided more than 406,000 bednights of emergency and
transitional housing.
“The call of my life
and my reason for entering the ministry is to be with and among
persons who are experiencing homelessness or otherwise struggling to
survive at the margins of our society,” Mazza writes on the New
Castle Presbytery Web site.
“In 26 years several
hundred Presbyterian churches, and thousands of mission volunteers,
seminarians, interns, and others have been part of our community and
ministry,” Mazza says, “including former [General Assembly]
moderator Rick Ufford-Chase.”
Mazza, who is joined
in the Meeting Ground ministry by his wife of 34 years, Marsha, says
his decision to stand for moderator “is based on my love for the
church which has done so much for me. In standing for moderator I
can offer to the denomination a different level of discussion from
the perspective of my quarter century of unique ministry. I want to
encourage the kind of radical, energetic dialogue that we need — not
just for ourselves, but for a world that needs us to have it.”
Mazza says he also
wants to dispel the notion that “non-parish” ministry is not a
sidelight of the church. “The province of the Gospel is not the
church, but the world — particularly with the persons at its
margins, as the Bible teaches,” he writes, “and the call of the
church is to continually create new forms of parish in the world.”
Mazza’s website >>
www.carlmazza.org
Presbyterian Outlook’s
report on Carl Mazza >>
[As far as we can discover, Outlook has carried only the
Presbyterian News Service report.]
Roger Shoemaker
Nebraska elder is fourth candidate for moderator
Roger Shoemaker is leader of PC(USA)’s Czech Mission Network
by Jerry L. Van
Marter,
Presbyterian News Service
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|
Elder Roger Shoemaker |
LOUISVILLE – February
28, 2008 – Elder Roger Shoemaker, a member of Southern Heights
Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, NE, has become the fourth candidate
to stand for moderator of the upcoming 218th General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Shoemaker, 74, was
endorsed Feb. 16 by Homestead Presbytery.
The only elder in the
race, he joins the Rev. Bill Teng of National Capital Presbytery,
the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow of San Francisco Presbytery and the Rev.
Carl Mazza of New Castle Presbytery as a candidate for the
denomination’s highest elected office.
Born and raised in
Illinois, Shoemaker moved with his family to southern California
when he was a senior in high school. He is a graduate of Fresno
State University with a degree in industrial engineering.
Shoemaker became a
Presbyterian in 1960 when he met his wife, Sue. First members of
Community Presbyterian Church in Ventura, CA, the Shoemakers later
became founding members of Eastminster Presbyterian Church there.
They moved to Lincoln in 1969.
Shoemaker has served
at all levels of the PC(USA) and in a variety of capacities. He has
served as a deacon and an elder, has served as vice-moderator and
moderator of Homestead Presbytery, and has served as vice-moderator
of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.
He says a turning
point in his church life came in 1989, when he served on a task
force at Southern Heights church that formed a partnership with a
Lutheran church in Lohmen, East Germany, a partnership that
continues to this day.
Growing out that
partnership came in interest in the Czech Republic. Shoemaker became
involved in the General Assembly Council’s Czech Working Group and
is currently co-convener of the PC(USA)’s Czech Mission Network. As
a result of that work, he has attended several Synods of the
Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren as the PC(USA)’s
representative.
“The experiences of
these varied exposures are the small grains of sand that make up the
rock upon which Roger Shoemaker stands, his Web site says. “These
granules of sand are held together by the faith that has grown
within him over the years and continues to grow in order that it may
be shared.”
Shoemaker’s website >>
www.rogershoemaker.com
Presbyterian Outlook’s
report on Roger Shoemaker >>
[As far as we can discover, Outlook has carried only the
Presbyterian News Service report.]
