Fresh off their election as Co-Moderators of the 226th General Assembly Sunday night, the Rev. Tony Larson and the Rev. CeCe Armstrong, who both serve churches in South Carolina, were pictures of grace and insight during a press conference arranged for the Presbyterian News Service and Presbyterian Outlook.
Fred Tangeman, who’s been hosting GA Daily at the General Assembly, moderated the 20-minute press conference, held backstage at the Salt Palace Convention Center minutes after Armstrong and Larson had been installed as Co-Moderators. Tangeman asked both how they were feeling.
“I am feeling too many emotions to name one,” said Armstrong, associate pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church. “It’s a mixed bag of emotions,” mentioning specifically the smiles produced by her connection to “all the ancestors.”
Larson, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Surfside Beach, said he felt grateful “for this Presbyterian Church that has nurtured me,” for the church he’s currently serving and those he served previously. He also thanked family members “for their willingness to share the faith.”
“We knew we had people who are here with us helping to make [the successful election] happen,” he said. But in the end, “the Holy Spirit worked its will.”
In the lead-up to the election, Armstrong had been sporting a T-shirt with the names of some of the women who’d gone before her in the PC(USA)’s highest elected offices, including the Rev. Dr. Joan Salmon Campbell, Patricia Brown, and the Rev. Denise Anderson. “Now I get to honor God in ways I have yet to find out,” she said. “Whatever God gets me to I end up getting through.”
Growing up in Detroit among intense racial struggles, Armstrong said her parents made a family pact to join the first church that extended arms of welcome. They found their home in a Presbyterian congregation, where the pastor told those in worship, “We have visitors among us, and we welcome you with open arms.”
Larson noted the PC(USA) is among the relatively small number of denominations who extend calls to ministry to women and people in the LGBTQ+ community. “We honor those calls, celebrate those calls, and believe we cannot be the church of Christ without them,” he said.
Asked about whether, if commissioners adopt POL-01, the PC(USA)’s conservative churches and pastors will remain inside the denomination, Armstrong advised trusting the Holy Spirit. Larson has counseled his flock to engage in further study of Scripture to learn more. “I believe we can’t be the body of Christ without everyone God is calling to be part of the body,” he said. “God is calling us to be the body God needs us to be.”
Armstrong noted that Acting Stated Clerk the Rev. Bronwen Boswell has noted the assembly has looked different in each of its last four versions. “Tony and I don’t know what’s to come,” she said. “Building community [at the assembly] requires us to use all of our resources to the best of our ability.”
“If we are going to acknowledge we are the body of Christ,” she said, “we recognize that all things work together for good for those who love God.”
Asked about providing ministry tools to the PC(USA) smallest faith communities, Larson brought up the SC5 School of Theology, which is supported by five presbyteries in South Carolina and trains lay preachers and other Presbyterians. “It helps to tell the stories they are doing to encourage others to know about possibilities to serve the church in that way,” Larson said, adding he was also struck by the Presbytery of Utah’s “Preach B&B” opportunity.
St. James Presbyterian Church “believes in shared ministry,” Armstrong said. An out-of-state congregation without a pastor reached out to ask St. James for permission to stream its services and “if you would mention our congregation now and then, it would let our congregation know we are in ministry together,” Armstrong said.
“It’s a chance to be in church with others,” she said. “My hope is we are embarking on shared ministry when we are not in our silos.”