Donegal Presbytery votes evangelical out of ministry By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, November 16, 2005 The Presbytery of Donegal in Pennsylvania voted Monday night to declare that Ernest D. Smart, an evangelical pastor, renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA) by holding services – without pay – for an independent congregation in Baltimore started by a Scottish social society. Ernest D. Smart made his plea to presbytery before being defrocked. "Before becoming a minister, I worked in a trade union," Smart, a native of Scotland, said in describing the presbytery's vote. "Things come full cycle. It was all about polity, polity, polity." Although the presbytery's Committee on Ministry voted unanimously to strip Smart of his ordination as a minister of the Word and Sacrament and the full presbytery approved that recommendation by a wide margin, there were some regrets. The presbytery also voted to send a letter to the Presbytery of Baltimore expressing Donegal's concern over the "lack of Christian love" Baltimore had exhibited in handling Smart's case. Baltimore, one of the most liberal presbyteries in PCUSA and currently under order from the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic to review its approval of the ministry of an openly homosexual minister, has been Smart's nemesis since 2000 when it forced him to resign from the pulpit of Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. Since then, the congregation has lost nearly half of its membership through 2004, according to denominational statistics. In 2002, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the highest court in the denomination, held that Smart was denied due process and fairness and ordered that he receive a second hearing before the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic. But, saying he had spent $31,000 to take his case to the GAPJC, Smart decided not to undergo a second trial. He transferred his membership from the Presbytery of Baltimore to the Presbytery of Donegal, where he served two interim assignments. Donegal officials gave him high marks. But, weary of the travel between his home in Forest Hill, Md., and Donegal Presbytery, Smart decided – without notification – to begin a ministry with the Society of St. Andrews in Baltimore. At the request of society members, he began leading services for St. Andrews members who were not affiliated with churches. Baltimore Presbytery complained to Donegal Presbytery that Smart was working without the permission of either presbytery. The Book of Order requires that a minister working outside the bounds of his own presbytery receive the approval of both presbyteries. The presbytery may grant a minister permission to engage in work which is outside its geographic bounds or which is not under its jurisdiction, but no presbytery shall permit a minister to engage in work which is within the geographic bounds of another presbytery and which is properly within the responsibility of another presbytery without consent of that presbytery. Such permission and consent shall be reviewed and renewed annually. Book of Order, G-11.0104(a) However, it does not require that the minister automatically be defrocked if he does not gain both approvals. The language in the Book of Order suggests that a presbytery "may" make that determination, but not that it must do so. When a church officer, after consultation and notice, persists in a work disapproved by the governing body having jurisdiction, the governing body may presume that the officer has renounced the jurisdiction of this church. G-6.0502. Smart, formerly a minister in the Church of Scotland, accepted the call to serve at Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore in 1991. He had previously served, while at Second Presbyterian and later, as the chaplain for the society. Upon learning that Smart was preaching on Sundays to the new St. Andrews Society congregation, Baltimore's Stated Clerk Charles Forbes sent the first of two complaints to the Presbytery of Donegal. Baltimore officials accused Smart of trying to proselytize PCUSA members to attend St. Andrews. During the Donegal Presbytery meeting, Smart said, some commissioners suggested that he file a remedial complaint to try to regain his ordination. "But, as I have said many times before, let's get on with life," he said. "I'm not wasting time, money or energy." Besides, he added, he still has his framed certificate of honorable retirement from the Presbytery of Donegal. "They'll have to come and fight me for that certificate," he said. "Do you know what the Scottish motto is?" He translated it from the Latin: "Who will dare meddle with me." Smart says he was born a Presbyterian and he will always be a Presbyterian. So will he try to become part of another Presbyterian denomination in the United States? "Not now. I'm leery of denominations."

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