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.”
