Presbyterians Elect Assembly Moderator

A Presbyterian minister who favors an emphasis on church growth and evangelism has been elected moderator of the 200th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Rev. C. Kenneth Hall, 63, pastor of Hill United Presbyterian Church in Butler, Pa., was elected moderator, or chief spokesman, on the first ballot with 319 votes--three more than the required 316 for a majority of 630 commissioners.

Hall defeated four other candidates, including the Rev. Juventino R. Ballesteros of Savannah, Ga., who if elected would have become the first Latino to hold the one-year post.

The new moderator said he viewed his victory as a mandate for his focus on evangelism and church renewal in the 3-million strong denomination, which has been losing members. “I think there is a hunger in our assembly now” for these things, he said.

A major event for Presbyterians the day before the election was a talk by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India, sponsored by Presbyterians Pro-Life, an organization that hoped to persuade the church to take a strong anti-abortion stand. In 1983, the General Assembly denounced abortion as a means of birth control, but it has accepted the practice under most other circumstances.

Although the event with Mother Teresa was unofficial, it attracted about 1,400 people, many of them convention commissioners. The Catholic nun, who founded the Missionaries of Charity religious order, described abortion as “the greatest destroyer of love and peace.”

Some commissioners described Mother Teresa’s appearance as a coup by the anti-abortion group. Abortion was not expected to be a major issue at the convention until the talk by Mother Teresa was announced about two weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, in Knoxville, Tenn., the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, formed 15 years ago and now including more than 1,000 congregations, elected television evangelist D. James Kennedy, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., as its moderator by acclamation. The denomination of about 160,000 members was ending its session Friday whereas the larger denomination will continue meeting through Wednesday.