Rick Ufford-Chase

Rick Ufford-Chase, born in York, Pennsylvania, is a peace activist and long-time member of the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona.[1] He was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on June 26, 2004. Ufford-Chase was 40 years old at the time, the youngest PC (USA) moderator in recent history. Ufford-Chase was the first Presbyterian Church (USA) moderator to serve for two years.[2] Previous moderators served one-year terms.

Biography

Ufford-Chase is a graduate of Dallastown Area High School, he has a bachelor's degree from Colorado College and entered Princeton Theological Seminary, but says he soon discovered that his call was not to be an ordained minister, but to serve in ministry as an elder. He has received honorary degrees from Hastings College and Bloomfield College (2006), Austin College (2007), and Eden Theological Seminary (2008). He also received the Dignitas Humana Award for Human Rights work from St. John's School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, MN (2007).

Activism

Ufford-Chase founded BorderLinks, a bi-national organization that tries to connect and educate people of faith on both sides of the United States/Mexico border.[3] He had served BorderLinks for 17 years prior to being elected as the Presbyterian Church's moderator. He leads a Migrant Trail walk, a 120-kilometre trek, in early June through the Sonoran Desert.[4]

Ufford-Chase also worked with the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America in Guatemala, and has been a co-moderator of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. With his wife, Kitty, he has been trained to serve as a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that has sent teams of "accompaniers" to Colombia, Iraq, Palestine and the United States/Mexico border region.

On December 12, 2005, he spoke at Arizona Major State Day, at the Washington National Cathedral.[5]

In April 2006, he visited the First Presbyterian Reformed Church of Havana.[6]

In June 2006, after the end of his term as PC (USA) moderator, Ufford-Chase accepted a call as the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. While there, and acting as the first full-time appointed Executive Director, Ufford-Chase was a founding member of both the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq,[7] and the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership.

In March 2008, Ufford-Chase with his wife Kitty were named transitional co-directors of Stony Point Center, a conference center of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Stony Point, New York. While assuming this position with his wife in August 2008, Ufford-Chase continues half-time as Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

Works
  • Sermon “This Very Night: The Time Is Now”, Rick Ufford-Chase, Brentwood Presbyterian Church, August 8, 2004
  • "Dying to get in: crisis on the Mexican border". Christian Century. August 10, 2004.
  • "Guest Opinion: Rick Ufford-Chase — No on Prop. 107". The Arizona Daily Star. 2006-10-30.
  • "The 2007 Pace-Warren Lectures". Second Presbyterian Church, Lexington, Kentucky. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
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References
  1. "Rick Ufford-Chase.(People)". National Catholic Reporter. July 30, 2004.
  2. Associated Press (June 28, 2004). "Peace activist to lead church". The Boston Globe.
  3. Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (2007). Religion and social justice for immigrants. Rutgers University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-8135-3909-6.
  4. Steven Scharper (Jun 30, 2007). "Mexican migration no reality TV show". The Toronto Star.
  5. http://www.nationalcathedral.org/press/PR-43J5F-L80000.shtml
  6. http://www.prccuba.org/eng/iglesia_galeria_03.htm
  7. http://www.nationalcapitalpresbytery.org/Portals/670/Peacemaking/RUCArticleWebsite.pdf
Religious titles
Preceded by
The Rev. Susan R. Andrews		 Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
2004–2006		 Succeeded by
The Rev. Joan Gray
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