A few weeks ago I caught up with Rev. Gradye Parsons, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA and a key member of the NCC’s governing board. If you’ve ever met Gradye, you’re in for a treat today. He is as warm and accessible as he is forceful and to-the-point.
In this episode we will talk with this key American church leader about the past and future of the Presbyterian Church, the essential role of justice-making, and what’s next for Gradye as he looks forward to retirement.
For those who know him, Gradye Parsons is known as someone who is intelligent, witty, and sharp. Gradye has led the Presbyterian Church USA for the past eight years and is now retiring. The church he shepherds has faced several challenges over those years including various stands on human sexuality, justice for Palestinians, and most recently the candidacy of Donald Trump. In this brief interview I was able to get a sense of Gradye’s vision for the church, its role in the National Council of Churches, and how he views his tenure as Stated Clerk and the man who has been nominated to follow him, Rev. J. Herbert Nelson.
