Electing a moderator!

We elected a Moderator tonight. The headline read "Elder Cynthia Bolbach elected on the fourth ballot!" What does that mean?

First, a bit about the process. The General Assembly gathered last night for the sole purpose of electing a moderator. At 7:00 pm, the nominating speeches began. We had six people who had declared their candidacy prior to the meeting, and no one was nominated from the floor. The six included five ministers, one elder, one Korean=American, one African-American, two candidates who were self-proclaimed evangelicals, small church pastors,a large church pastor, and at least two who were bilingual. Amazingly, their diversity was exceeded by the diversity of the people they had selected to serve as their vice-moderators.

Each candidate had someone give a nominating speech, and then they each gave a speech. After those, each candidate answered questions from commissioners. Ninety minutes later, we were ready to vote. We vote electronically, and we continue voting until a candidate has 50% of the votes. It took four ballots. None of the candidates removed themselves from the ballot (sometimes the ones receiving the fewest votes will ask to be removed from the ballot for the subsequent vote).

In some ways, I was surprised by the vote. When I had heard the candidates speak briefly at lunch earlier in the day, our new moderator was the least impressive, in my opinion. But, as the candidates answered questions, she kept her answers brief, seemed more direct inher answers, and used humor effectively. She was the only elder, which I think helped her. Listening to the other five candidates move into mini-sermons while answering thier questions seemed to lump them togehter and gave her a distinctive place in the minds of the commissioners. As the questioning continued, the other five seemed to grow weary, but our Moderator seemed to get stronger.

WEary might be a fair description of how all the candidates must have felt by the end of the night. When they "stand" (that's the term used) for Moderator, they literally spend the first two days standing side-by-side at booths in a general gathering area to greet all the commissioners and answer their qeustions. The only criteria to stand for Moderator is to be a commissioner to the General Assembly and to not overspend the $1500 limit for their campaign. They also have several opportunities to speak to different settings before the night of their election.

Now Moderator Bolbach's two years of leading our denomination begins. May God bless her in her work.

Peace,

Richard