More Light board and staff at Church of the Pilgrims in Washington, DC
The More Light Presbyterians National Board of Directors consists of 15 persons elected by the membership of MLP or appointed to fill vacancies per the requirements in the by-laws.
Nominations to the National Board of Directors are made by a Nominations Committee. The Nominations Committee solicits the MLP membership for suggestions for nominees and considers both within its composition and its proposed slate of nominees the diversity of sexual orientations, differing abilities, racial-ethnic backgrounds, gender identities and expression, ages (in conformity with applicable laws), synod of residence, and MLP membership categories.
If you would like to contact a board member, please send an email to alex@mlp.org. He will forward your request to the appropriate board member(s).
Co-Moderators
Annanda Barclay (2018) is in the ordination process under the care of Mission Presbytery. She obtained her M.Div. at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Annanda is a member of Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. She is a 2012 Fund for Theological Education Ministry Fellow. Currently Annanda, is continuing pastoral formation as a part-time student chaplain at a local area hospital. She believes the Church is not a silo, but is called to actively advocate for the welfare of all God’s creation. She serves and works with various groups to strategically advocate for intersectional justice, love and kindness. Annanda, her partner M, and their two dogs reside in Chicago, IL.
Rev. Robin K. White (2016), Honorably Retired, was ordained in 1986 and has served as pastor of five congregations in Delaware and Maryland. She is a member of the Baltimore Presbytery and is a former member of the MLP board. Robin resides in the mountains of West Virginia with her spouse, Rhonda, and their two dogs and two cats. She has spent much of her time over the past few years caring for her terminally ill father, and her 90 and 91 year old in-laws. She volunteers at an ovarian cancer retreat where she serves as a yoga instructor, in addition to providing spiritual and pastoral care. Robin designs and builds furniture and in her free time she loves hiking, kayaking and camping.
Additional Board Members
Ashley Birt (2018) Ashley Birt is a recent graduate of Union Theological Seminary where she obtained her M.Div. She also holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Ashley currently works as the Director of Christian Education at Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York, NY with some of the most fun kids she’s ever met. Her interests include the intersections of racial justice, children and youth, interfaith communication, LGBTQ+ issues (particularly the B), and Christianity. When she isn’t at church or doing social justice work, she enjoys writing, sound editing and theatre tech.
Ralph Carter (2016) is a native of Chipley in the Florida panhandle, graduate of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and an elder of Third Presbyterian Church, Rochester NY, home of Frederick Douglass, abolitionist; Susan B Anthony, suffragist; Walter Rauschenbusch, leader in Social Gospel movement; and Lillian Alexander, Third Church elder and champion for women’s ordination in 1956. Ralph is a Council member of Presbytery of Genesee Valley and chair of the Nominating Committee, former chair of Nominating Committee for Synod of the Northeast, former co-president of Xerox employee resource group, GALAXe Pride at Work . Ralph recognized his 32-year marriage with Van in August 2012 by civil registration in Rochester NY, with marriage celebration in August 2013.
Rev. Scott Clark (2017) serves as Chaplain and Associate Dean of Student Life at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS). Scott is a graduate of SFTS, and also has worked with the seminary’s Program in Christian Spirituality. Before going to seminary, Scott practiced law for twelve years in Birmingham, Alabama, where he worked mainly on cases involving employment discrimination and constitutional law. In addition to his ministry at the seminary, Scott preaches frequently in Bay Area churches.
Scott’s ministry in the broader church includes advocacy for the full inclusion of all people – including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer – in the full life of the church. In that work, for a number of years, Scott represented pastors who were prosecuted in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for celebrating the marriages of same-gender couples, before the PC(USA) officially recognized those marriages. Scott celebrates the PC(USA)’s recent moves toward marriage equality, and the community that led the church to a more loving and expansive understanding of the gospel. Scott also serves on the board of More Light Presbyterians. At the heart of Scott’s ministry is the conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all people.
Vikki Dearing (2018) is a life-long Presbyterian and is ordained as both an elder and a deacon. She is a member of Connecting Point Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City where she is a member of the session and chairs the Worship Experience Committee. A former co-moderator of the MLP board, Vikki was invited to rejoin the board in 2016. She serves on the Governance Committee. In her “civilian” life Vikki has been in some form of workforce development for over 40 years. Vikki and her wife, Deb Bunting, have been together for 34 years.
Jenny Hardin (2017) is currently enrolled in the M.Div. Distance Program at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. She is under care of the Presbytery of Great Rivers as an inquirer, looking soon to move to candidacy. Jenny has been serving the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Illinois for two and a half years as their Director of Christian Education and Lay Ministries. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and spending time outdoors. She and her spouse, Abbey, currently live in Carlinville, Illinois.
Marc Jung (2016) is currently Clerk of Session at Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco, California. In addition, he chairs San Francisco Presbytery’s Bills, Overtures and Session Records committee. Marc currently chairs the MLP Board’s Communications Team and is excited by MLP’s Social Media presence. He is a Bay Area native.
Rev. Jeff Krehbiel (2017) is pastor of Church of the Pilgrims, a More Light Church in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he has served for fifteen years. During his tenure the congregation has experienced revival in its worship life, renewed engagement with the city through participation in a city-wide church-based community organizing effort, and invigorated outreach to young adults through programs such as “Theology on Tap,” a weekly Bible study held in the tavern across the street from the church. Practicing radical hospitality, Church of the Pilgrims became a More Light Church in 2002. Jeff served previously as pastor of More Light congregations in Wilmington, DE and New York City. Involved in church-based community organizing for nearly thirty years, he is the author of “Reflecting With Scripture on Community Organizing,” published by ACTA Publications. In 2003 he earned a D.Min. in “Gospel and Culture” from Columbia Theological Seminary.
Roger Lee (2016) serves as a spiritual director, whose ministry includes LGBTQ persons. He is a ruling elder at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, Seattle, WA, a Covenant Network congregation. He has served at all four levels of PC(USA) councils, including, clerk of session, deacons’ moderator, Presbytery Spiritual Formation Team, Presbytery commissioner, Alaska/NW Synod moderator, GA commissioner, Presbyterian Foundation trustee, Middle Governing Council Commissioner. Roger has lead advocacy for two Seattle non-governmental organizations and shares those skills with MLP. He and his wife have two adult children.
Rev. Will McGarvey (2017) is a bisexual man happily married to his partner Becky for 22 years, and is blessed with two brilliant young adult children. Will has been pastor at Community Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, CA, a PC (USA)-UCC congregation, for the last seven and a half years. Will is involved in many justice ministries, and currently serves on the MLP Board, the board of the Rainbow Community Center in Concord, CA, and the advisory board of the Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations. He also specializes in theology of the environment and has installed five permanent labyrinths in the Bay Area.
Rev. Derrick McQueen (2018) Derrick McQueen is a Ph. D. Candidate in Homiletics and New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He entered the Ph. D. program after completing his M. Div. with a focus on Theology and the Arts, also at Union. He earned his B.A. in Theatre Arts at Drew University in 1987. Within the Presbyterian denomination he worked on the successful campaign for LGBTQ inclusion in church life while serving on the boards of Presbyterian Welcome and That All May Freely Serve. He is currently serving as the Moderator Elect of the Presbytery of New York City where he is a candidate for ordination in the Presbyterian Church USA. Currently he is the Assistant Director of Community Partnerships for the Center on African American Research, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS) at Columbia University. Derrick has worked as a community activist, social worker and is currently an Arts and Culture Poverty Scholar with the Poverty Initiative/Kairos at Union.
Mark Olson (2018) Mark Olson is a ruling elder and a member of First & Central Presbyterian Church, a More Light congregation in Wilmington, Delaware. As immediate past moderator of New Castle Presbytery, he currently serves as chair of the presbytery Council and has also served several terms as a trustee of New Castle Presbytery, including as chair of the trustees. Mark is a lawyer, concentrating in the areas of taxation, and trusts and estates, and has worked on legal issues affecting same gender couples. He is the father of five, the grandfather of four, and is married to Jenny Warren, a Presbyterian pastor. He has been known to support losing causes, most recently the 2015 Philadelphia Phillies.
Jeananne Stine (2016) lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and serves as the moderator for Welcoming Presbyterians of Baltimore, a new group that is working for LGBT Equality in the PCUSA.
Rev. Kyle Walker (2017) Kyle Walker is a Texan by birth and a gay man by the grace of God. His ordained life in ministry began in 1997 as an Associate Pastor for Youth and Christian Education at Springdale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Since that time he spent 14 years in student ministry on behalf of the PCUSA and UCC at Texas A&M University where the Department of Student Life honored him with their Rainbow Award for helping the university create a climate of inclusion for LGBT persons. Recently, Kyle has been called as the pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. Faith joined the More Light Movement around 2005.
Kyle was a commissioner from Mission Presbytery to the 221st General Assembly in Detroit. As the PCUSA has moved to include LGBT persons to greater and greater degrees, Kyle has a passion for looking back at where we as a church continue to fall short for women, people of color, and those who do not fit our continuing cisgender biased ethos as a church. Believing we will find Jesus increasingly at the intersections and margins, Kyle is excited about More Light playing a big role in the future church. Kyle is a graduate of West Texas A&M University, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Columbia Theological Seminary where he received his Doctor of Ministry examining young adult involvement in church life. Kyle and his partner Nelis Potgieter enjoy traveling, seeing historical sites, cooking, and pretending they are the reincarnation of Siskel and Ebert at the movies. No, really.
*Rev. Dr. Kyle Walker has been appointed to fill an unexpired term and is joining the board class of 2017