Gradye Parsons elected General Assembly stated clerk
Nomination committee’s choice wins on first ballot

by Jerry L. Van Marter

SAN JOSE, June 27, 2008 — The Rev. Gradye Parsons,
associate stated clerk and director of operations for the
Office of the General Assembly (OGA), won a first ballot
victory Friday (June 27) to succeed the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick as General Assembly stated clerk for the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Kirkpatrick is stepping down after three four-year terms.
Parsons has served in OGA for eight years after serving as
executive presbyter and stated clerk of Holston Presbytery
in his native Tennessee.

Parsons received 405 votes, or 57 percent. He was the
choice of the Stated Clerk Nomination Committee and
defeated three other applicants who also stood for
election.

The Rev. Winfield “Casey” Jones, pastor of First
Presbyterian Church in Pearland, Texas, finished second
with 176 votes, or 25 percent. Jones was an unsuccessful
challenger to Kirkpatrick in 2000.

The Rev. Ed Koster, stated clerk of Detroit Presbytery,
finished third with 110 votes, or 15 percent. The Rev.
William Tarbell, pastor of Saluda (S.C.) Presbyterian
Church trailed with 21 votes, or 3 percent.

In his speech before the vote, Parsons invoked the names of
several folk who have been influential in his ministry,
saying he was “standing with them for this office.” He
spoke for example of a hard-working church member in
Tennessee, Betty, “who taught me that faith is not a static
noun, but an active verb.”

Parsons said, “The church matters to me, deeply and
passionately. That’s why I’m offering myself to the
church.”

Jones said his administration would be “permeated by
prayer” and that he would focus the denomination’s
attention as much on The Book of Confessions as on the Book
of Order. “The church has to be connected to its roots
[Jesus Christ] like a tree to its roots,” Jones said. “If
we are rooted in Jesus Christ, in prayer and in what God
has said in the past, then we will bear much fruit.”

Koster emphasized his 13 years experience as Detroit
Presbytery’s stated clerk and his training as both a lawyer
and minister. “I am a clerk experienced in polity and
issues of the church,” he said, “and I will invite all to
the table of all theological persuasions.”

Tarbell emphasized a pastoral approach to the office and
said he employs a systems analysis approach to determine
“whether relationships create or block progress” in the
church. “My approach will be as informative, accurate and
objective as possible.”

Asked about the decades-long pattern of membership decline
in the PC(USA), Parsons said all Presbyterians “need to
develop the welcoming spirit of Acts 2 rather than [lack of
openness to strangers] we find in many of our churches. You
and I need to be more open to those who are different from
ourselves.”

On the authority of Scripture, Parsons said, “Scripture is
God’s gift to us and should always be our starting place.
That’s where I start,” adding that the Bible “is not a book
that’s easy to read and is not supposed to be, because
while we are reading the Bible the Bible is trying to read
us, which is not always easy.”

All four candidates agreed that fear is one of the greatest
problems facing the PC(USA). “Fear paralyzes,” Jones said,
“but perfect love, that of Jesus Christ, drives out fear.”
Koster said that fear “sometimes makes us feel we’re coming
unglued, but we have our great traditions of
Presbyterianism …” and Tarbell called fear “our most
destructive enemy, robbing us of purpose and life itself.”

Parsons called fear “the overriding issue in the church —
everybody’s afraid that for some reason or another the
church is going to close in two weeks.” He said his
favorite Bible story is the story in Luke 8 — Jesus in the
boat, asleep, with his disciples when the storm comes up.
“Jesus wakes up and asks, ‘Where is your faith?’” Parsons
said. “The middle of the lake is pretty scary and you can’t
see the other shore, but a mantra I recite to myself
regularly is ‘Get in the boat; go across the lake; there
will be storm; you will not die.’”

So it is for the PC(USA), he told the Assembly after his
installation. “We are in this together because God has put
us together,” Parsons said.

“Now let’s go make Jesus proud of our church.”

At the press conference following the election, Parsons
responded to a question about denominational funds to
assist with legal expenses in lawsuits relative to property
issues.

He responded, “The last thing we need to do in dealing with
these situations is to go to court. We need to find ways to
address them with each other and try to stay out of court,
which will bring down costs considerably.”

“We need to find ways to help people not to live into fears
as we continue to discern together how to be the church.
The important thing is we need to stay connected to each
other, rather than distance ourselves from each other.”