Meet the New Synod Moderator: Ruth Collins

by Ray Waddle

Ruth Collins, a school teacher for 32 years, has seen vast shifts in the values of young people in the classroom over the decades. As a lifelong Presbyterian, she's seen a similar drama transforming church life — changes in worship, music, mission and influence, some controversial, some inevitable.

But churches can survive and thrive in a changing world as long as they remember the "church should remain the church," says Collins, new moderator of the Synod of Living Waters.

"There's room for different styles of music and worship, but the message should still be Christcentered and come from the Bible," says Collins, an elder at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Ala.

"God loves us. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."

Elected to the one-year post, Collins, 67, presided at the January annual synod meeting in Huntsville, Ala. She will attend executive committee meetings through the year, then next year will chair the synod council.

Collins, who grew up in Camden, Ala., has worshiped in Presbyterian churches all her life. Indeed she was shaped in early life by Presbyterian educational initiatives. In rural segregationist Alabama of the 1940s, she attended a Presbyterian mission school, Camden Academy, established for African American youngsters.

It was an education opportunity that otherwise would not have existed for black children in that era.

She graduated with an English degree from Knoxville College in Tennessee, another Presbyterian school founded predominantly for African Americans.

"Presbyterian education was a vital part of me," she says.

"The Presbyterian Church has always had the desire to provide solid education and solid religion education. That helped me realize the Presbyterian Church is where I ought to be."

Collins moved to Mobile in 1958 and was an English teacher in the public school system until her retirement in 1999. She is clerk of session at her church, sings in the choir, substitutes as a Sunday school teacher and is active in Women of the Church and Vacation Bible School. She and her husband, Donald, have been married 45 years.

As moderator of the synod, she says she is glad to underscore the Presbyterian theme of connectedness — the helpful lines of communication from local church to presbytery to synod to General Assembly. It's a church distinctive that has kept Collins actively identified with the denomination. It keeps local worshipers connected to a larger world of faith and mission.

"If you're coming out of a smaller church, it's nice to know you're not out there by yourself," she says.

"There's connectedness from one church to another. There's connection between local church, presbytery, synod and General Assembly. Local churches can get information and support if they're looking for it."

Collins still teaches part-time locally at Bishop State Community College, imparting good English practices to sometimes reluctant students.

"So many young people now are into contemporary language and don't think it's necessary to learn standard English," she says.

"Their interests are so different. Everything is computerized and visual. But I have to tell them it's not all fun and games. In order to have any degree of success in life, you have to learn standard English. You can have fun, but you also have to concentrate and focus. Religion is this way too now, with the use of all the new media. In the churches we have to find ways to integrate the old things and the new."

(Ray Waddle is a writer in Nashville.)