Current and former GA Moderators will join #GivingTuesday2021 virtual celebration on Nov. 30

Denominational leaders to reunite for livestreamed game show in support of PC(USA) mission

by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Engagement & Support | Special to Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — If their repartee on Facebook is any indication, the current and former General Assembly co-moderators, moderators and vice moderators, quite frankly, miss each other.

And while under normal circumstances the next General Assembly would have brought them together, because a pandemic-driven, hybrid-format, 225th General Assembly (2022) will preclude their convening, they must necessarily seek out other opportunities.

Enter #GivingTuesday.

On #GivingTuesday, which falls this year on Nov. 30, Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart and the Rev. Gregory Bentley, Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly (2020), will join virtually with four former GA moderators and co-moderators to play a game called “Hold on! Hold on … Stop Talking!,” at 5 p.m. Eastern Time as part of the PC(USA)’s eight-hour livestream, designed to entertain, inform and encourage greater giving.

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving designed to harness the potential of social media and the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide. The PC(USA) has run a campaign for #GivingTuesday since 2014 and an online telethon since last year.

“We hope that our siblings across the PC(USA) will join us on #GivingTuesday for this parody of a popular, weekly NPR current events quiz show, where we hope to stump our General Assembly moderators and co-moderators,” said Kate Trigger Duffert, Manager of General Assembly Business and Per Capita Promotion in the Office of the General Assembly. “The show, which will be done in good fun, is designed to test their — and your — PC(USA) trivia knowledge, while figuring out what’s real and what we’ve made up!”

The Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston speaking on ‘ Genuine Hospitality: From Serving the Poor to Dismantling Poverty’ at the 2018 gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. (Photo by Gregg Brekke)

Joining Street-Stewart and Bentley will be former GA moderators and co-moderators Ruling Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri (2018), the Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston (2016), the Rev. Denise Anderson (2016), and the Rev. Dr. Neal Presa (2012).

“One of the things I have learned over the years about others and myself is that people want to be a part of something larger than themselves” said the Rev. Dr. Blythe Denham Kieffer, pastor and head of staff at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois. “They want to give to something they believe in, something that changes lives, and something they have confidence will be done well and with integrity.”

Kieffer, honorary co-chair of the multi-agency, cross-departmental, #GivingTuesday staff team, represents the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, on which she serves. In this year’s #GivingTuesday campaign, the PC(USA) will be emphasizing support for Shared Mission, Special Offerings and Per Capita as the Church continues to embody Matthew 25.

“#GivingTuesday,” said Kieffer, “is a tangible way to be a part of something larger than our individual lives and our individual congregations as we raise funds for the ongoing work of the PC(USA).”

The staff team, headed by Lauren W. Rogers, project manager for Digital Fundraising, Special Offerings and the Presbyterian Giving Catalog, also includes honorary co-chair Kathy Maurer, from the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB), which has just issued a challenge to its members to give $1,000.

In communicating the challenge to the PMAB, board chair the Rev. Warren Lesane, Jr. — who serves as synod executive and stated clerk of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic — invoked the theologian and civil rights leader, Dr. Howard Thurman, one of whose favorite poets was Rabindranath Tagore. Lesane’s message to the PMAB on Nov. 12 cited a particular Tagore poem that Thurman himself often shared: “I slept and dreamt life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold! Service was joy!”

The Rev. Warren Lesane, Jr. chairs the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“As a Presbyterian Mission Agency Board member, I have grown into this understanding of service over the past five-and-a-half years,” Lesane said, “that service to Christ through the Church brings unspeakable joy! It has brought me personal joy to have been part of a larger process of discernment, listening, praying and gathering input in the birthing of a remarkable, generational Vision Implementation Plan, which is just one reason why PMAB chair-elect Shannan Vance-Ocampo and I are lifting up #GivingTuesday. #Giving Tuesday is a great way to translate our giving into joy!”

The Rev. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, general presbyter for the Presbytery of Southern New England and chair-elect of the PMAB, enthusiastically joins Lesane in the board challenge.

“I’m so pleased to be able to support #GivingTuesday with a shared challenge gift of $500 from PMAB chair Warren Lesane and myself,” she said. “As leaders, we are so excited about where the Mission Agency is headed with its new Vision Implementation Process, the ongoing ministry of Matthew 25, and to support our [president and] executive director, the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett. We hope everyone around the PC(USA) will support the #GivingTuesday initiative as we support the many ministries that make up our larger witness in the world.”

New to this year’s denominational #GivingTuesday effort is the multi-site format. Stories of innovative ministry and worship will be featured from the following locations: Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, North Carolina; Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis; Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas; and Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

“We are beyond grateful to these congregations and their presbyteries for opening their doors and helping us celebrate Presbyterian generosity this #GivingTuesday,” said Rogers. “It’s been a blessing to get to know these congregations as we plan the day. I look forward to the rest of the denomination seeing what wonderful work is taking place across the PC(USA) through these faith communities, our partners and your gifts.”

This year’s livestream, which will be available on the #GivingTuesday campaign page, will again be titled “We are the Church… together!” It will run for eight hours, from noon through 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 30, and will also be available here.

“We are a connectional church,” said Maurer, a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church of Taymouth in Birch Run, Michigan. “The gifts that we give reach farther than our local, state and national churches. By each giving a little we can make a difference collectively. Please join us on Giving Tuesday to make a difference in this ever-changing world.”

Join the PC(USA) in responding to a world in need! Give now. For graphics and text promoting #GivingTuesday 2021, click here.