Ministers ordered to leave Hollywood Presbyterian Church Administrative Commission assumes original jurisdiction of congregation The Layman Online Wednesday, May 4, 2005 Shortly after the Presbytery of the Pacific had rejected a Committee on Ministry recommendation that two pastors be ousted from their work at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, the ministers were ordered to vacate the church building within 24 hours and not to speak about the matter to any member of the church staff, session or congregation. While rejecting the COM's recommendation to dissolve the calls of the Rev. Dr. Alan J. Meenan, the senior minister at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Dr. David Manock, the second-highest ranking member of the staff, the presbytery voted to name an Administrative Commission to oversee the governance of the church. After the five-hour presbytery meeting ended in the early hours of Wednesday, when most commissioners had left Covenant Presbyterian Church, members of the Administrative Commission approached the two ministers and told them that they had been placed on "paid administrative leave." A person who answered the telephone in the presbytery office on Wednesday morning said that the staff "knows nothing about" the action taken against the two ministers. Later in the day, Frank Marshall, the presbytery's stated clerk, released the following statement: "At a specially called meeting held on May 3, 2005, the Presbytery of the Pacific appointed an Administrative Commission over First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, with the authority to assume original jurisdiction over the church. The Administrative Commission determined to take immediate action to create a safe and healing environment for the members of the church. It immediately placed two of the pastors, the Rev. Dr. Alan Meenan and the Rev. Dr. David Manock, on paid administrative leave effective at the close of the meeting on May 3, 2005. The Rev. Dr. Dale Bruner will be preaching on May 8." Before the meeting, 16 of the congregation's 24 elders wrote a letter of objection to the Committee on Ministry, contending that the committee had not followed the Book of Order. Citing a constitutional requirement that the Committees on Ministry "shall serve as an instrument of Presbytery for promoting the peace and harmony of the churches …," the elders said the committee had abdicated its requirement to be a mediator. "This COM unilaterally decided that the Session of HPC should not even be consulted about the difficulties it was investigating." Their letter quoted one Committee on Ministry representative as saying that the committee was advised by the PCUSA's office of Constitutional Services "not to speak to the session." "Such advice, and the Committee's casual acceptance of it, shows blatant disregard for the constitutional role of the COM defined by the Book of Order," the elders said. During the presbytery meeting, which participants said was attended by approximately 500 members of the Hollywood church, several speakers emphasized the need for the pastors to be involved in the congregation's reconciliation discussions. Speakers also noted that the complaints on which the COM had based its recommendation had come from a tiny portion (108 persons) of the 2,760-member congregation and that most of the congregation was unaware that any dissension existed. When the meeting ended, participants said that hundreds of Hollywood church members streamed from the building, celebrating that the COM's recommendation had been rejected and the ministers would be allowed to continue their ministry. Some 20-to-30 members lingered in the sanctuary, as did the two pastors, their attorneys and the congregation's attorney. A delegation, described by one of the church members who asked not to be identified as "men in suits with papers in their hands," approached the ministers and said they represented the Administrative Commission, that the ministers were being immediately placed on administrative leave, and that they must vacate their offices by noon without discussing the matter with members of the congregation. Telephone calls and e-mails to The Layman's editorial offices from members of the congregation asked how it was possible that the presbytery would vote to retain the ministers, and then the commission could put them on administrative leave. The callers also asked how the administrative commission, which had only been appointed an hour earlier during the presbytery meeting, could present documents relating to the administrative leave to the ministers so soon after the meeting ended. Several phone calls and e-mails by The Layman Online to obtain comments from the those involved in the presbytery's action were not returned.

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