Delegates to Southeastern California’s Nov. 7 constituency session elected that conference's first black president, Gerald D. Penick, Sr., and the Pacific Union's first female officer, Sandra Roberts, as executive secretary. They also re-elected Thomas Staples as conference treasurer.
Penick replaces Lynn Mallery, who retired after 12 years as SECC president. Penick has served in the SECC office since 1989, 12 years as executive secretary and three years as assistant to the president for black ministries and director of community services, inner city and prison ministries.
Penick has pastored in the Southeastern California, Allegheny West, Central States and South Central conferences. Though Penick is the first African-American president in the SECC, he is the seventh black conference president elected in the Pacific Union in recent years, and the fifth to serve (two declined).
Roberts, however, is the first female officer in any conference in the Pacific Union. Since 2000, she has been associate youth director in the SECC, and before she co-pastored at the Corona church for five years. Roberts has many years experience in youth and summer camp ministry, beginning when she was a student in the 1970s. She has served as chaplain at Loma Linda Academy, general manager and summer camp director at Pine Springs Ranch, and religion teacher at Modesto Academy.
Penick commented after the votes were counted, “This is a historic day for the Southeastern California Conference. The votes this morning say we are truly one in the spirit.”
Lawrence Geraty, president of La Sierra University, said, “I am very proud to be a member of a church that can welcome and accept the leadership of a black president and a female executive secretary.”
The delegates also re-elected the three vice presidents: Rudy Bermudez (Asian ministry), George King (black ministry) and Mario Perez (Hispanic ministry).
After lunch, delegates considered and rejected a recommendation from the bylaws committee to change the ethnic representation on the conference executive committee. For many years the conference has sought proportional representation, meaning if 10 percent of the conference membership is black, for example, then 10 percent of the conference committee should be black. The bylaws committee recommended a change to equal representation; an equal number of Asian, Hispanic, black and non-Hispanic white committee members.
Black, Hispanic and white-Anglo delegates quickly stepped to microphones and said it is time to move beyond classifying everyone by ethnicity. “We have demonstrated today that church leadership is open to everyone,” one delegate commented. “Let’s not go backward.” Delegates voted to send the issue back to the bylaws committee.
But not all the work of the bylaws committee was rejected. Delegates approved mid-term constituency sessions where conference leaders will present two-year progress reports.
Nor were the delegates afraid of significant innovation. James Walters, professor of religion at Loma Linda University, proposed creating a “judicial commission” to settle disputes between church members in the SECC, including disputes involving employees and conference administration. The delegates voted to test such a commission for four years.
Chuck McKinstry, educational superintendent, presented four proposals to strengthen Christian education and make it more accessible to members. Delegates approved all four: setting up a commission to search for ways to increase student scholarships; asking every church in the conference to support Christian education (even if there is no school near them); asking the conference officers, the office of education, and the department of property and trust services to work together to raise funds for education; and establishing a second educational endowment with a fixed rate of return.
