Presbyterian Life & Witness Board selects its co-chairs
The Rev. Scott Lumsden and Ruling Elder Aleathea Harris-Little are elected from a pool of eight candidates
ZEPHYR POINT, Nevada — After meeting behind closed doors for most of the day Tuesday, the new Presbyterian Life & Witness Board elected Aleathea Harris-Little, an educator and ruling elder from the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee, and the Rev. Scott Lumsden, the co-executive of Seattle Presbytery, as its co-chairs.
The 18-member board is meeting at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center through about noon Pacific Time on Wednesday.
Immediately following their election Tuesday afternoon, board members paused to pray for their two leaders. The Rev. Marta Pumroy-Cordero, Co-Moderator of the 227th General Assembly, petitioned God to equip them so they can serve with energy, intelligence, imagination and love.
Lumsden has helped to lead Seattle Presbytery for 18 years and was a member of the Unification Commission.
“We’d like to continue as best we can the work of the Unification Commission,” Lumsden told Presbyterian News Service following the election. “I think it’s critical that the important pieces that we started but were not completed are presented to the [PL&W] Board in a way they can get their heads around.”
A 26-year educator and administrator, Harris-Little teaches second-graders at Napier Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee, and is Presbyterian Women moderator at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. She said it’s her goal to “continue to seek vitality for the denomination and continue to see our local congregations thrive and be a center pillar” for the PC(USA).
“I was happy to accept the nomination,” she said, adding she’s “open to serving and I’m passionate about building relationships, communicating and collaborating, and offering a listening ear.”
“We’re all created in God’s image to be great, to think great and to act great,” Harris-Little said. Among her favorite verses is Philippians 2:13: “for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly at Executive Director of Presbyterian Life & Witness, said the new co-chairs “bring a lot of passion and love for the church, some fresh eyes, some mid council eyes, some history with the process and some newness to engage where we are now.”
Oh said Harris-Little’s membership in a historic Black church “is an important lens she brings as we continue to work on diversity in the PC(USA). I’m very excited to be working with them.”
Both new co-chairs will be putting in 15-20 hours per month in their new roles.
“I could see any of them being elected co-chair” Harris-Little said of the eight candidates. “To see them speak with sincerity about serving God and continuing to be of service to the denomination and progressively move toward the wholeness of God — it’s definitely a collective effort.”
Earlier in the day, board members worshiped, with board member Kris Thompson leading a service from the Iona Abbey Worship Book. Thompson had recently returned from worshiping at Iona, an island on the western coast of Scotland.
“Worshiping at the Abbey was an important experience and a recognition of the ways that community and ecumenical life are so critical for this denomination,” she said. “Today we will use the morning service. I hope you get a sense of the Iona community.
The Rev. Bill Teng led acapella versions of “Praise with Joy the World’s Creator” and “Will You Come and Follow Me?” The Rev. Oswaldo Montalvo-Nazario read Psalm 85, first in English and then in Spanish. Harris-Little read Isaiah 42:1-10 and Romans 5:1-5.
As the sun went down over Lake Tahoe Tuesday evening, board members gathered at a fire along the shoreline for a worship service led by Pumroy-Cordero and her fellow Co-Moderator, the Rev. Dr. Kris Schondelmeyer. Pumroy-Cordero played a recording of a song she learned in seminary, Karisha Longaker’s “We Shall Be Known.”
The two then provided a dramatic reading of Rev. 22:1-2, the central scripture for the 227th General Assembly (2026). The Co-Moderators also posed a few questions for those gathered: What are places in need of healing? Where do you see signs of healing?
“We know from the General Assembly that trust needs to be rebuilt,” Schondelmeyer said. “It can start with our own lives.”
“Tension within us,” he said, “causes tension among us.”
He then played “Healing River,” a song by Schondelmeyer’s seminary professor, Dr. Christopher Grundy of Eden Theological Seminary.
“We hope,” Schondelmeyer said, “that we can leave committed to be a healing and hope-filled presence in the church and in the world. The world is still hurting, and God is still calling.”
Board members concluded their evening around the fire by snacking on s’mores.
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