Presbyterians elect first female leader
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post
The country's largest Presbyterian denomination has elected a woman to its most senior position, selecting the Rev. Susan Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Md., to serve as its leader for the next year.
Andrews is the first female pastor elected to the post. Six other women have been elected moderator since the denomination was formed in 1983 through the reunion of two other Presbyterian denominations. Five of them were ordained elders at the time of their election, and one was an ordained minister who was not a pastor.
Andrews, who is popular in her 686-member congregation for her strong leadership and administrative skills, was elected last weekend during the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Denver. She received
53 percent of the votes on a second ballot, beating two other candidates, both of whom are men in their 70s.
"I'm surprised and thrilled and somewhat overwhelmed," Andrews, 54, said earlier this week in a telephone interview from Denver. "It's a great honor, and I feel God has been preparing me for this."
Clarence Hickey, senior lay leader at Bradley Hills, said that the congregation, which Andrews has pastored for 14 years, is "just absolutely thrilled to death."
About 50 church members gathered at the church last weekend to watch the vote online. Images from the denomination's Web site were projected on a large screen.
When Andrews won, "It was like winning he Super Bowl," Hickey recalled. "People jumped out of their seats, arms in the air. It was a magnificent moment."
Her election to the post of moderator makes Andrews the denomination's official spokeswoman and ambassador. She begins her one-year term at a time when her church faces the same challenges as several other mainline Protestant denominations: declining membership, a shrinking clergy pool and tensions over such social issues as abortion and ordination of gay men and lesbians.
Andrews said she believes that sexual orientation should not be a barrier to ordaining clergy.
"My No. 1 priority is keeping the church together," Andrews said Wednesday. "I want those who disagree with me in my church. ... We are going to need to learn to disagree about a nonessential tenet of our faith."
The constitution of the 2.5 million-member denomination states that only people who practice fidelity in marriage or chastity as singles can be ordained. Recent attempts to delete this requirement have been defeated. The issue will be discussed again at this year's assembly.
