RICHMOND, Va.—The Presbyterian Church (USA) has named Rick Ufford-Chase its new moderator. Accordig to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the 40-year-old may be the youngest moderator youngest person to serve as moderator of the 2.4 million-member church. He is also the first layperson to hold the office since 1999.

Ufford-Chase is an ordained elder at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Ariz., and a longtime peace activist who started a border ministry. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Ufford-Chase was elected and installed as moderator of the denomination's 216th General Assembly over the weekend.

"I am grateful to be elected moderator," he said. "I've been dreaming about this opportunity for two full years." Ufford-Chase won the election on the second ballot over the Rev. David G. McKechnie, 63, pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, and the Rev. K.C. Ptomey Jr., pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tenn.

The volunteer moderator presides over the General Assembly and serves as the chief spokesperson and goodwill ambassador of the denomination for two years.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Ufford-Chase is a Presbyterian mission worker who has spent 18 years working on the U.S.-Mexico border. In 1987, he founded and continues to direct BorderLinks, an organization whose mission is to connect and educate people of faith on both sides of the border.

In addition, he works with the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Guatemala. For the last three years, Ufford-Chase has been co-moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

He and his wife, Kitty, a lifelong Quaker, are active with Christian Peacemaker Teams, which sends groups to be a nonviolent presence in such areas as Iraq, the Palestinian West Bank and the U.S.-Mexico border area. Ufford-Chase and his wife have been strong advocates for migrants along the border for more than 15 years.

Ufford-Chase's church, Southside Presbyterian, is affiliated with More Light Presbyterians, an organization working to remove the denomination's constitutional amendment that requires church officers "to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness." The group also seeks to nullify a 1978 General Assembly Authoritative Interpretation that bars ordination of "self-affirming, practicing homosexuals."