The stage has been set for the election of the next moderator and Synod Clerk of the PCC on Saturday November 16, 2024 following the election of Presbytery Meetings and their Synod representatives. These elections held simultaneously across all the 31 presbyteries of the PCC on Saturday October 12 with the results already giving an indication of the fore runners for the top position in the church.
The PCC upholds the reformed tradition and practices more of representative democracy in selecting those to lead in different capacities. This makes the PCC one of the most democratic religious institution in Africa and even the world over. It’s one where the ordained and unordained ministers play a big role in the governing of the church at all levels.
In part one; we looked at how the church elects its leaders at the congregational and movement levels. These elected leaders elect from among themselves those that will represent them at the presbytery level (chairpersons, presbytery delegates, presidents and secretaries of groups and movement executives).
On October 12, 2024 all the members of the presbytery Meeting in all the 31 presbyteries of the PCC gathered in their respective presbyteries to elect the presbytery executive and members of the Finance and the landed Property Committees. See article 78 i of PCC constitution and article 15.1.i of the Finance Order.
The Presbytery meeting is very important because is here the process to elect a moderator and Synod Clerk takes shape.
First in the year of election, the Synod Executive Committee sets up an electoral commission. This commission is composed of nine reputable and committed communicants of the PCC. Among these members are three ordained pastors, an ordained retired pastor and five unordained or committed communicants. (Art. 115.i PCC constitution). To be a member of the electoral commission, the ordained pastors must have relinquished his or her right to run for any of the two positions and must not be a member of the Synod Committee.
Art. 115.iii defines the role of the commission which is to “examine and screen the list of candidates submitted by the different presbyteries with a view of selecting three for the post of Moderator and three for post of Synod Clerk by order of merit”
According to the PCC electoral procedures, the electoral committee headed by a retired Pastor of the PCC, will vet, scrutinise, tally and present the official results of the top three candidates per position. The nomination finalists according to points system will be presented to the Synod Committee in the next phase where the top two per position will be retained for the final election.
Away from this, let’s look at the election proper. There are clear guidelines as to who can be moderator or synod clerk. These are;
- They Moderator and Synod Clerk shall not be indigenes of the same region. (art. 112)
- They must be ordained ministers
- Should not be less than 45 years old and should not be more than 60 years old
- Must be active and has rendered at least 15 uninterrupted years of service,
- Shall be married or widowed,
- Should have acquired a basic theological training lasting not less than three years,
- Should not have been placed under any disciplinary action by the church (see articles 113 and 114)
- Shall be a pastor who does not owe his/her congregation, the central church or people outside the church.
- The Electoral Commission shall with the Synod Clerk establish a list of eligible candidates for the two offices taking into account art. 112 and 114 of the constitution. The list after review by the Synod committee shall be forward to the presbyterial secretaries at least a month before the date of the presbytery meetings.
The Election Proper
The election of the Moderator and Synod Clerk starts with the nomination of candidates at the presbytery level. First the presbytery meeting conducts the election of its executive and committee members. The Presbytery chair and the Synod Delegates elected (must be of opposite sex) will be the two elected officials to represent the presbytery at the Synod. This process is overseen by an electoral commission made up of five persons and the representatives of the Synod Electoral commission.
The ordained ministers in the presbytery are presented with clearly marked nomination papers and envelop of different colours for both the nomination for Moderator and Synod Clerk. They proceed to nominate three candidates each for both positions from the list of eligible candidates sent to them earlier.
The list of nominated candidates is in a weighted system that is the first name on every list carries three points, the second two points and the third one point.
The results of the presbytery meeting of October 12 are already known following the publication of the nomination results by the Electoral Commission lead by Retired Rev. Tende David (See list below). The Rev. Miki Hans (93 points) is leading the way in nominations for the office of Moderator and the Rev. Ayuk Solomon Eta (87 points) is ahead in the nomination for Synod Clerk.
But this is not a forgone conclusion that the two will ultimately make it to the top jobs of the church. This sealed list from the presbyteries according to the constitution has been forwarded to the President of the electoral commission which was open in full view of its members. The nominations were tallied according to the presbyteries and later the top three in terms of points retained. The electoral Commission gives time to receive and deliberate on petitions forwarded to it. It submits its finding to the Synod Committee Executive which decides on the merit of such petitions.
After this, the top three nominated candidates for the positions give their Statement of Faith. After listening to this, the Synod executive Committee will move forward to elect two candidates per position each, eliminating the 3rd candidate. The list of the two elected candidates is forwarded to the Synod Committee. The Synod Committee upon receiving the final list of two candidates each for the top position forward it to the Synod in a sealed envelope. Any of the retained pastors in the list can still be voted as Moderator and Synod Clerk because the elections as in the previous stage is by secret ballot.
The Synod after listening to the statement of faith of the candidates will proceed to elect the Moderator and then the Synod Clerk of the PCC. Members of the electoral commission are responsible for the counting of the votes and proclamation of the final results. This will be in the month of November 2024 and the New Moderator and Synod Clerk must assume their positions latest the 31 of December.
Tallied Result of the final three submitted to the Synod Committee Executive by the Electoral Commission is as follows below;
For Post of Moderator
- Rev. Miki Hans – 93 points
- Rev.Njongai Polycarp – 61 points
- Rev. Numfor Godwin – 38 Points
For Post of Synod Clerk
- Rev. Ayuk Solomon Eta – 87 points
- Rev. Mokoko Simon Elive – 52 points
- Rev. Mokoko Thomas – 25 points.
In Part Three of the PCC election series, we will be looking at the Place of elections in the Church.
