A brief introduction to the nominees for Moderator of the 127th General Assembly.

On Sunday, June 3, 2001, the 127th General Assembly will open in Toronto. At that time, a new Moderator will be elected from a field of five candidates. This year, perhaps believing the "F" in the FLAMES initiative stood for "Female," the presbyteries have nominated more women than men. Voting to choose a Moderator-designate takes place prior to Assembly by all members of presbyteries across the country. The result should be known on April 2.

Maureen Kelly

As an active layperson at St. Andrew's Church, Brampton, Ontario, for 30 years, Maureen Kelly has been involved in a variety of roles, including elder, church school superintendent and co-ordinator of St. Andrew's Food Cupboard. Her understanding of the church at the grassroots level and its challenges has been expanded by the strategic planning sessions she has facilitated with numerous congregations.

But Kelly's energy and enthusiasm are not concentrated solely on the grassroots level. She has been a member of several national boards, agencies and committees, including three years as convener of the Life and Mission Agency. Currently, she is a member of the Assembly Council, represents the council on the Life and Mission Agency Committee and is convener of the International Ministries Advisory Committee. Wanting to broaden her outlook even more, she recently took part in a FLAMES mission trip to observe the work of the Church of North India.

All this, plus her participation in the working group Called to Covenant: Strengthening Congregational/Presbytery Relationships, has left Kelly with a deep and broad understanding of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.

As Moderator, Kelly would be sensitive to the need of Assembly to be an open forum for all to speak and be heard. "It is important that we gather, discuss and decide on issues with God's guidance, as God inspires all commissioners, lay and ordained," she says.

Encouraging people to be aware that God calls each of us to serve him is important to Kelly. "We may sometimes feel like Jonah and protest going to Nineveh," she says, because it's easier to leave the work of Christ's church to the professional church workers. But in a year when the FLAMES initiative focuses on equipping the laity, Kelly would stress the need "to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives." Our "ordinary, everyday experiences can be fully used by God."

As a nurse, Maureen Kelly realizes God calls us to a variety of professions, positions and roles. "The way we take our 'church experience' into our community, the methods we use to let, the love of Christ shine through us, and the comfort we have in sharing our faith in Christ with others are pressing issues for the people in our congregations," she says.

Mark Lewis

Mark Lewis was born in South Wales and raised in rural Canada. Like his father, a retired minister of The Presbyterian Church in Canada, he has served in a variety of rural and urban congregations. For the past 31/2 years, he has been minister of MacNab Street Church in Hamilton, Ontario.

From 1997-2000, Lewis served as convener of the General Assembly Council. Since 1997, he has been convener of the National Long-Range Planning Committee and played a leading role in the development of the FLAMES initiative. His experience at the national level has not caused him to lose track of the local church, however. As convener of the Assembly Council, he listened to Presbyterians from across the country. "Sometimes, at the national level, loud voices can dominate the discussion and intimidate the quiet voices," he says. "We need to listen to the quiet voices because they express the wisdom of faithful Presbyterians working hard in congregations."

Lewis believes inspirational biblical preaching is crucial to the future of the church. (In 1997, the Record carried an ad asking readers who they considered to be the best preachers in the church. Of the 154 responses received, Lewis drew the most votes, followed closely by Record columnist Tony Plomp.) He loves to preach to young people and has been guest speaker at many youth conferences. He was the opening night speaker at Canada Youth 2000 and will be the theme speaker at this year's follow-up conference.

As Moderator, Lewis's first goal would be to moderate the General Assembly with "compassion, faithfulness and humour," just as he endeavoured to do as convener of the General Assembly Council. Throughout the year, he would uphold congregations in celebrating the FLAMES priorities -- priorities that were established by listening to congregations across the country.

Lewis believes the most urgent need of the church is to hear and respond to God's gospel of redemption. "The whole world is hungering and thirsting for the deep and powerful meaning that Christ brings to our existence," he says.

Mark Lewis also believes the church needs to serve both the local community and the whole world. Practising what he preaches, he was named Citizen of the Year in Dunnvile, Ontario, during his time as minister of Knox Church. And as for the wider picture, Lewis says the church needs to serve the world through international mission. "Our society is keenly aware of the needs of the world, and the church must be perceived to be an agency that is deeply concerned for suffering people all around the globe."

Joe Reed 

"The church has given me many gifts," says Joe Reed. "Parishes in suburban New York and Montreal, inner-city work at Tyndale-St. Georges, Montreal, teaching in West Africa, and voter registration in the American South in the 1960s." As might be expected, these varied gifts have Left him with vivid memories. Such as the time he was talking with an alcoholic transient one moment and attending a Board of Trade luncheon an hour later. The church enables such "incongruous and diverse conversations," says Reed. They are "reminders of our humanity."

Since 1986, Reed has served as area liaison missionary for Central America and the Caribbean. "A wonder of the call to Central America," he says, "has been the chance to cross the land, to talk about mission and to listen. To hear from colleagues in ministry, both lay and ordanied."

"You Presbyterians are hard on yourselves," a coworker from another denomination once told Reed. "We have the same problems, but we don't brood." Reed agrees. "We need to rediscover the excitement of being both Christian and Presbyterian," he says. "Great things happen in rural parishes and in city cores and, of course, in missions in Canada and abroad. How many children are alive today because of our workers? How many have caught the vision in our seminary libraries and classrooms?"

An unexpected challenge and joy for Reed has been listening to the number of congregations and people who are in pain. Some of the pain is inevitable, springing from life's transitions. But some we inflict upon ourselves, he believes, "a product of clashing visions and personalities."

Presbyterians need to celebrate their witness, faithful and true, Reed states. They need to remember the good in our time and to give thanks that God has entrusted this age to us. Let's rejoice in the work of Presbyterian World Service and Development, he says. "Let's recover the excitement of service, of love for those who are outside as well as inside the church."

"Your church shows it is important to serve, rather than simply to preach -- to preach through actions." a Central American friend suggested to Reed. This is a model not to recapture but to reaffirm.

At Christmas, we celebrate God's love made incarnate, made real. For Joe Reed, it is a love made real "for street kids in Managua and for kids in Canadian suburbs, for seniors in nursing homes and for folks in the pews. Each beloved of God and called to service."

Helen Smith 

The Apostle Paul uses the image of the body to describe the church. It is, says Helen Smith, "an image of giving and receiving, of partnership, growth and renewal, of healing and hope." It is an image that has provided her with a framework for her ministry.

That ministry has included pastorates in Edmonton, and in Kent County and Thornhill in Ontario, the latter two as part of a team ministry with her husband, Robert Smith. It also includes her current work at Evangel Hall, an inner-city mission of the Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto. She has served as moderator of three presbyteries, as a member of the Committee on Church Doctrine (including one year as convener), and is currently a member of the Justice Ministries Advisory Committee. Ecumenically, she represents The Presbyterian Church in Canada on CANAAC, the Caribbean and North America Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. A daughter of the manse, Smith has a special place in her heart for the baptismal font of Jubilee Church, Stayner, Ontario, "where the adventure began."

The FLAMES initiative for 2001-2002, "equipping the laity," is particularly exciting for Smith, fitting well with Paul's body-building imagery. "I sense a tremendous energy within our church waiting to be released, looking for appropriate channels, appropriate mission endeavours," she says. "We all have gifts to bring, gifts that build up the church, that bring light into darkness, that heal and help -- whether it is the able-bodied young woman constructing storage sheds for Habitat for Humanity or the man in the wheelchair in the nursing home who holds my hand and sings with me." The church needs to continue to offer opportunities for people to put their faith to work. In the words of hymn-writer Fred Kaan, "worship and work must be one."

Smith also believes the clergy can be equipped by the laity. "The Evangel Hall community, a community of giving and receiving a variety of gifts, has been a constant inspiration to me."

As Moderator, Helen Smith would be interested in hearing the stories of the church and its mission, and in helping to get those stories out to all branches of the church. She wants to help Presbyterians to see new avenues for service and to encourage them to use their gifts. "Throughout my ministry, I have seen that when we share our individual riches and our individual poverties -- and we all have both -- in the name of Jesus, then great things happen."

Glynis Williams

Glynis Williams is an ordained minister and director of Action Refugies Montreal, a joint ministry with the Anglican Church, supported by Canada Ministries. She has served the Presbytery of Montreal in several capacities, and the national church as a member and convener of the Presbyterian World Service and Development Committee. She also served as a Presbyterian representative on the Inter-Church Committee for Refugees for six years.

Given her background, it should come as no surprise that Williams has always had an appreciation for Karl Barth's image of a Christian as someone with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. "It suggests," she says, "that we can only truly understand the gospel when we approach it with the perspective of the world around us, with all the good and bad news that unfolds daily."

When issues are complex or involve unfathomable suffering, the temptation is to avoid thinking about them or to retreat into simple affirmations of faith," says Williams. But in the long run, such action (or inaction) is frustrating and unsatisfying. "For God is in every corner of this sometimes dark but magnificent creation ... calling us to use our hearts and minds to struggle with the big questions and, then, to act."

Will our denomination die because it is obsessively worried about its survival? Or will it be, as Williams envisions it, a "place where people concerned about God's world and all God's children search for ways to make sense of the challenges and sadness that confront us all." "Fear not, for I am with you," Jesus reassured his terrified disciples. "Imagine what The Presbyterian Church in Canada might be if we all embraced that promise," Williams exclaims.

As Moderator, Williams would welcome the opportunity to hear about the good things that are happening in the church across the country -- "to see firsthand the results of people who are reading both the Bible and the newspaper and to celebrate their faithfulness."

And, for those who might wonder if her involvement with refugees presents too narrow a focus to bring to the role of Moderator, Glynis Williams says she prefers to think of refugee ministry as a window on the world -- a world that Jesus invites us to engage in and to pray for. Perhaps, she suggests, some of the experiences, challenges and blessings she can share will be thought-provoking For others. "Together, we could affirm that the gospel message is a message worth taking seriously. Together, we might discover new ways of understanding creation and worshipping the Creator."