Rev. Gradye Parsons, who was re-elected on Sunday as the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), called on the denomination's members to weather the storms it is experiencing and use their gifts for Christ.

The Stated Clerk leads the Office of the General Assembly, the highest governing body of the denomination. Among the issues facing the church are declining membership and theological divisions.

A statement made after his re-election recalled a similar one he made four years earlier where he likened the state of the denomination as the boat in the Gospel of Mark.

"We are in the boat. There will be storms. We will not die," he said at the time.

On Sunday he continued with that thought.

"Yes, there have been storms, and there still are. Yes, we're in a bit of a mess, but we're still called by Jesus Christ, to be sisters and brothers in the faith, and to use our gifts for the world Christ loves," he said, according to the Presbyterian News Service.

The re-election – which was unopposed after Parsons was the only person who submitted an application for the position – gives him another 4-years in office.
In a speech after being re-introduced to the assembly, Parsons asked questions posed by a pastor who built a successful church in the U.S. but did not replicate the effort in Thailand.

Where is Nazareth? Parsons said that in Jesus' time it was not an old town on the margin of society.

"The lesson is to think about the people on the margins when we seek to follow Jesus," he said.

What is our pain? Parsons said that Christians are eager to show their sanctification "but no the pain that is messy and gets us there."

"The world wants to see how we handle this mess and get to Christ's sanctification," he said.

What is in our hand? He said he hears complaints about lacking money, youth or other things.

"Too often we don't look at what we already have. We have so many gifts, so many things we can be about in service to Jesus Christ," he said.