General Assembly, new Stated Clerk

This morning we elected the J. Herbert Nelson as the new Stated Clerk of the PCUSA.  This is one of the most important roles in the church.  He was selected by the search committee and presented for nomination, but there was another person who was also nominated (this is allowed, much like we open the floor to nominations when we elect our church officers).

The other candidate, David Baker, was a younger man, with lots of tech experience, who was also an ordained Teaching Elder (as is J. Herbert Nelson). For me, it seemed like a choice between the establishment candidate, Nelson, and the anti-establishment candidate, Baker.  Or, perhaps a generational difference with the older guard being represented by Nelson and the younger generation by Baker.

As they answered questions and then we debated their candidacies, I wondered if the younger generation was going to supplant the candidate put forward by the establishment.  In fact, when the Young Adult Advisory Delegates (YAADs)voted overwhelming for Baker, the younger candidate, I thought for sure we were headed in that direction. After all, I believe the commissioners had followed the lead of the YAADs on every other vote.  When the results were revealed, I was shocked to see that 4/5s of the commissioners voted for J. Herbert Nelson, the establishment candidate.

For me it is a footnote, but to others it is important -- J. Herbert Nelson is the first African-American Stated Clerk of the PCUSA.  When I looked at the commissioner next to me, an African-American woman who was in tears at his election, I realized that his election had implications I had not considered.  I'm not sure if it is a sign that race is becoming less and issue as indicated by my not thinking of it as an issue or if it was a sign that I am not as sensitive to race issues as I should be.

Regardless, add one more historic vote I have been a part of at a General Assembly.