Presbytery votes to invalidate ministry of Presbyterian Lay Committee Williamson granted member-at-large status The Layman Online Saturday, January 31, 2004 ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Presbytery of Western North Carolina voted Saturday night not to validate the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and, as part of a third way denounced by Parker Williamson as an "oily compromise," voted to grant him member-at-large status in the presbytery. The presbytery, acting on a recommendation by the Committee on Ministry, voted 150-106 "that the work (chief executive officer and editor of The Layman) of Parker T. Williamson not be validated as a ministry consonant with the mission of the presbytery in light of the character and conduct of the work" of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. An amendment to the motion, made by Pete Peery, pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Asheville and approved by the presbytery, offered member-at-large status to Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications. In effect, the amended motion separated the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and Williamson, and it was the ministry of the Presbyterian Lay Committee that was deemed invalid.

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