Sunday, July 1, 2012

General Assembly (2012) #2



Rev. Dr. Neal Presa Moderator

                I am pleased with the election of Neal Presa as our new Moderator. He was elected out of a group of four qualified, articulate and experienced candidates.  Of course, the office of moderator of the General Assembly is an important symbol for our church. Almost any Presbyterian leader with some church experience can lead a meeting. But our Moderator is a symbol of who we are and, even more, who we would like to be. As such a symbol, Neal Presa is an excellent choice, in my mind, for our desire to live into a larger global Christianity.

                Neal Presa is a Filipino-American whose education included an M.Div. from San Francisco Seminary, an Th.M. from Princeton Seminary and M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Drew University. He is currently serving as the pastor of the Middlesex Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He has extensive experience in global ecumenical relations. This experience included service on the American and North American Area Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches and participation with the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council. In a Presbyterian New Service article he is quoted: “We must reclaim our unity in the God who gathers us in worship and sends us out into our communities and, indeed, the whole world to invest and share our lives in others.”