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Written by Martha Skelton, Outlook associate editor
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Friday, 16 May 2008 06:13 |
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 Winfield “Casey” Jones, pastor of First Church in Pearland, Texas since 1986, has announced that he intends to be nominated for stated clerk at the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) this month in San Jose, Calif.
“I feel a strong sense of call to the office of General Assembly stated clerk,” he says. “ I have a three-part vision for this office. … The stated clerk of the General Assembly must be a spiritual leader, second, … preserve and defend the Constitution of the PC(USA), and third … narrow the distance between the General Assembly and the local church.”
The stated clerk has the important task of helping the church create an atmosphere of prayer, he says. “Winds of change are blowing in the PC(USA). In order to catch that wind, we need an ‘ancient-modern’ vision of spiritual leadership similar to that of the apostles. That wind has carried our moderator, Joan Gray, as she has called us to prayer and, as well, to ‘ancient disciplines’ like tithing. That wind has also led GAC Executive Director Linda Valentine to equip fresh leaders from PC(USA) congregations for ministry at GAC. I want to lead with the same vigor and responsiveness to the Spirit as they have.”
Jones sees as a priority the stated clerk’s role to preserve and defend the Constitution of the PC(USA). “The church must be able to trust the clerk to be evenhanded in interpreting the Book of Order, and to preserve and defend both parts of the Constitution, especially in times of disagreement,” he says. “I pledge myself to this important task.”
He and his wife, the Rev. Victoria Jones, both have been co-pastors of churches and have ministered in different sized congregations. “I have noticed that Presbyterians in small to mid-sized congregations and in large membership churches do not always completely understand one another. … My wife … has served for the past ten years on the pastoral staff of two different large PC(USA) congregations in Houston. My own experience, enhanced by being married to her, has helped me understand and appreciate the wondrously rich and diverse life of the PC(USA) at the congregational level,” he says.
Also important is the very current local church perspective he brings. “I would bring to the Office of the General Assembly the recent experience of leading worship, preaching the Word, baptizing babies, visiting the sick, caring for the grieving, and serving in the trenches of local congregational life.”
The Presbytery of New Covenant passed a resolution May 10 in support of his candidacy (http://newcovenantganews.blogspot.com/2008/05/pnc-commends-candidacy-of-rev-casey.html).
The Texas pastor holds a D.Min degree from Union Theological Seminary-PSCE in Richmond, Va., a B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina (Morehead Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa); he attended the University of North Carolina School of Law for one year and holds a “Certificat d’Etudes Politiques” from Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris, France.
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