FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2009
NATIONAL CAPITAL PRESBYTERY
ENDORSES BOLBACH FOR MODERATOR
Elder Cynthia Bolbach was endorsed Nov. 17 by the National Capital Presbytery as a candidate for Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“I feel called to stand for Moderator to help our church – proud inheritor of the Reformed tradition – discern how best to proclaim the timeless Gospel message to a 21st century world that is multi-cultural and religiously pluralistic,” Bolbach said.
Bolbach, 61, is an attorney who serves as Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary of BNA, Inc., a wholly employee-owned company that is the sole remaining independent U.S. publisher of specialized legal and regulatory information services. She began her career at BNA as a legal editor reporting on the environmental movement of the 1970s. She then served as a managing editor of BNA publications focusing on First Amendment and intellectual property law, before moving on to work on broader corporate issues for BNA. She is a member of BNA’s Board of Directors, and also serves on the boards of three subsidiary companies owned by BNA.
Bolbach has been active at all levels of the Presbyterian church. Raised a Lutheran in the Pennsylvania Dutch country of Lancaster, Pa., she became a Presbyterian when she joined The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Washington, D.C., where she was ordained a deacon and elder and served as Clerk of Session. She later transferred her membership to the First Presbyterian Church, Arlington, Va., a suburb of Washington, where she also served as Clerk. She was a commissioner to the 209th General Assembly in 1997.
Bolbach served as member, and then as chair, of National Capital Presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. In 2003 she served NCP as its Interim General Presbyter. She was Moderator of National Capital Presbytery in 2007, and chaired its Council in 2008.
In 2006, she was appointed to the denomination’s Form of Government Task Force, and was elected its Co-Moderator. The Task Force was directed by the 217th General Assembly to prepare a revised Form of Government that would enable and empower congregations and presbyteries to address the changing cultural, economic, and societal challenges that face the church in the 21st century. The Task Force submitted a revised Form of Government in 2008 to the 218th General Assembly, which determined that further study was necessary. The Task Force was reconstituted, asked to oversee this further study, and directed to submit a new proposal in 2010. Bolbach continues as a member, and as Co-Moderator, of the reconstituted Task Force, which has presented its new proposed Form of Government for action by the 219th General Assembly.
“A proposed new Form of Government is just one step among many that we must take to transform the church for the 21st century,” Bolbach said. “We need to stop thinking like bureaucrats and start acting like disciples. I want to help lead that transformation.”
“I think Elder Cindy Bolbach is an outstanding candidate for our PCUSA moderator at this particular time in our history,” said Roy Howard, pastor of Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville Maryland, ”precisely because she brings theological depth, insight, energy and practical skills to the many challenges facing our denomination. She has the gifts and calling to guide us through changes in our polity that will help us proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, not only in what we say but also by the way we live together as the Church.”