Title: New moderators nominated
Date: March 4, 1997
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
97c-13
INDIANAPOLIS (DNS)-- A Lexington, Ky., pastor has been nominated to lead the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) General Assembly, beginning in July.
The Rev. Michael W. Mooty, senior minister, Central Christian Church, Lexington, has been nominated as moderator. Nominated as first vice-moderator is Zola M. Walker, director of development and church relations, Jarvis Christian College, Hawkins, Texas. Also named is Dr. Donald T. Lucey, Raleigh, N.C.,who would serve as second vice-moderator.
Elections will be during the July 25-29 General Assembly, to be held in Denver. If elected, they will serve two-year terms that expire at the conclusion of the 1999 biennial gathering.
Mooty has served the Lexington congregation since March 1995. He previously served pastorates in Dallas, Chattanooga, Erlanger, Ky., and Winston-Salem, N.C. The moderator presides at meetings of the General Board and Administrative Committee. If elected, Mooty would preside at the 1999 General Assembly, scheduled to meet in Cincinnati.
The nominee is a member of the board of directors of the Christian Board of Publication and the board of trustees of Lexington Theological Seminary. He has previously served as chair of the Week of Compassion Committee, and as chair of the board of directors of the Board of Church Extension. Mooty also served two terms on the General Board and on the board=s Administrative Committee.
A graduate of Davidson (N.C.) College and Lexington Theological Seminary, Mooty has continued his education at Princeton (N.J.) University; Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.; LTS and Hebrew Union, Cincinnati.
He and his wife, Sarah, have two sons.
Zola Walker has been a part of the Disciples-related Jarvis College staff since last spring, but was employed by the school in the late 1960's and again in the late 1970's. She has 17 years experience in higher education administration.
Walker is former moderator of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest. Other service as a Disciple includes membership on the denomination=s General Board and Administrative Committee. She has also served on the board of directors for the church=s Council on Christian Unity and Division of Higher Education. She is a member of Jarvis College Christian Church.
Walker is currently president of the Big Sandy Rotary Club, and a member of area civic associations.
She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tennessee State University, Nashville, and an MBA from the University of North Texas, Denton.
Her husband, the Rev. Claude Walker, is pastor of East Side Christian Church, Longview. The couple are the parents of three children and have seven grandchildren.
A 25-year member of Hillyer Memorial Christian Church in Raleigh, Lucey is a doctor in private practice and a clinical professor of urology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
He helped organize the Urban Ministries Center in Raleigh, a crisis intervention center and homeless shelter. Lucey has also been an active member of the Health Access Committee for the North Carolina Medical Society. About 10 years ago Lucey was instrumental in starting the Open Door Clinic which serves persons who do not have medical insurance. Some 21 clinics, modeled after the Open Door Clinic, have now been established in the state.
In his congregation, the nominee has served as an elder, CMF president and youth group sponsor. He is a former trustee of National City Christian Church and has traveled to Indochina on ecumenical mission trips.
Lucey earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and his M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1964-67, stationed at the U.S.A. Hospital, Weisbaden, Germany.
Lucey and his wife, Shirley, are the parents of three adult children and have one grandson.
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