Friday, February 08, 2008

A Web 2.0 Moderator?

As the time for the biennial General Assembly meeting approaches, candidates for Moderator are being endorsed. Among those "standing" so far is Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow. (For my non-Presby readers, the Moderator is the highest elective office in the denomination and serve for one two-year term.)

Bruce is much younger than your average "standee" for this position and, as befits one of his generation, is using web tools such as blogs and Facebook to introduce himself and to invite dialogue and discussion with him about the issues in the denomination.

Apparently he is getting criticism about his "2.0 Moderator" approach.

I like it. We need more transparency, not less, in the denomination if trust between the "higher courts" and the person in the pew is going to be restored. I'm looking forward to following his "campaign" through his blog and he's even going to force this old fuddy-duddy to finally check into Facebook to see what that is all about. I may not agree with all of his views, but I welcome the way he is inviting folks into discussion about them. Check it out for yourself.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No time to read all his post today, but I scanned it. I agree with you QG, we do need more transparency because of so much divisiveness and mistrust that has been growing. He's willing to dialogue with the criticism and present who he is. That's refreshing.

Reformed Catholic said...

I have no problem with Bruce's blog, nor the blogs of any of the other moderator candidates.

What bothers me is that while this is a great way to get to know a few of the candidates, it tends to leave the other, perhaps 'technophobe' candidates out in the cold.

What should happen is that the PCUSA should give all the presbytery endorsed candidates a blog forum for their use, putting all on level playing fields.

BTW .. nice remodel QC !!

Lori said...

P.S., Yes, nice new look you have! And I've tagged you!

Anonymous said...

Transparency? In a church? *snort*

Transparency would:

1. Let people know things that might cause them to stop giving money.

2. Give aid and comfort to the political opponents (left or right, it doesn't matter) of whoever suffers when bad news is released.

It will therefore never happen. At least not until there isn't enough money or power in a church to be worth lying for.