First co-moderators elected: Anderston/Edmiston elected on first ballot
Seattle Presbytery
June 18, 2016 by Leslie Scanlon, Presbyterian Outlook
On the first ballot, the 2016 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected on June 18 the team of T. Denise Anderson and Jan Edmiston as its co-moderators – choosing leaders who say they want to “cast a vision of hope for the church we love dearly” and who have challenged Presbyterians to realize that change is both inevitable and can be a force for good.
The assembly elected Anderson and Edmiston – both teaching elders – by a vote of 432 (76 percent) to 136 (24 percent) over the team of Adan Mairena, a teaching elder and new church development pastor from Philadelphia, and David P. Parker, a ruling elder and lawyer from North Carolina.
That election marks the first time the assembly has elected co-moderators – and the first time the slate chosen has ever consisted of two women.