Open letter to session
Resigning
Hollywood member
says administrative commission,
presbytery violated Book of Order
Posted on The
Layman Online: Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Jon
Thomasson, a deeply involved member, has resigned from Hollywood
Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles in the wake of the dismissal of
Hollywood senior minister and top associate. The following is
Thomasson's letter to the session.
December 22, 2005
To The Session of Hollywood Presbyterian Church:
Hollywood Presbyterian Church has been my church home almost all of my
life. I joined the church twenty years ago while I was in college. And,
before then, whenever my parents would bring our family to church it was
usually to Hollywood Presbyterian.
My Christian walk has been formed by God's work in my life through this
church. Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie baptized me when I joined the church. Pastor
Scott Erdman married me to my lovely wife, Bella, more than eighteen
years ago. Dr. Ogilvie and Pastor Tod Bolsinger baptized my two
children. In college, through summer deputation, I participated in a
short-term mission trip to Istanbul where I witnessed actual miracles of
healing and saw Muslims come to faith in Jesus Christ – an
experience that fundamentally changed my life.
I was part of the leadership of the Renewed Class (over 100 members in
the late '80s) under Pastor Erdman. I was a founding member of Partners
Fellowship under Pastor Mark Roberts and served on its leadership. For
the summer deputation short-term missions program, I served as a mentor
to a young man going to serve the Lord cross-culturally. Bella and I
have participated in and led home Bible study groups comprised of church
members throughout our time at HPC. I was a Guardian Angel for new
members. I served as a small group facilitator for the New Members
Class. During the Alpha Program, my wife and I led a follow-up group
called "Beta" to help solidify new Christians' faith. I led
the games activities for Vacation Bible School for several years. Bella
and I taught three-year-old Sunday school for a year and served as
substitute teachers other years. I was a camp counselor for two years at
Indian Village. I was a member of the ad hoc advisory committee that
helped select Deni Hardgrave as the new Children's Ministry Director.
I served on the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee that called Dr.
David Manock to HPC. More recently, I participated on last year's
Officer Nominating Committee. My wife and I served on the Couple's
Garden Committee and then chaired it for several successful years. We
also developed and ran the successful "Partners Lunch After Church"
monthly potluck that sought to build community and integrate "fringe"
people into the fellowship of the church. We began and led a middle
school discipleship and service group called "Young Servants."
And in recent months I worked with many on session and in the
congregation to help protect HPC from the unfriendly takeover engineered
by the apostate Presbytery of the Pacific.
I do not list all the above to boast about my accomplishments, far from
it, but to thank the Lord Jesus and this church for blessing me and
discipling me in so many ways and through so many people over the past
twenty years. Every opportunity for service has revealed my own weakness
and sin and so caused me to call on the Lord as I follow Him. He has
broken me and grown me through this church. Hollywood Presbyterian
Church is where I have raised my children, developed almost all my
friendships, and poured my heart and life into the growth of the kingdom
of our Lord Jesus amidst a world that is perishing.
There have been occasions over the past two decades where I have
considered leaving HPC for various reasons. But God has always asked me
this question: Is the leadership godly and faithful to Scripture and the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? The affirmative to that has kept me
strong in this local body of Christ.
But now, the answer to that question has changed. The leadership
of Hollywood Presbyterian Church is the Administrative Commission and
the Presbytery of the Pacific, two apostate groups. Two godly pastors
have been forcibly removed. Many faithful members of the session and
staff have resigned or been terminated.
Should some of you on session challenge my assertion that the
Administrative Commission and the Presbytery of the Pacific are
heretical, let me remind you of some facts:
- Elder Tony de la Rosa is an open homosexual who constantly and
aggressively works nationwide to establish gay ordination and gay
marriages as accepted practice throughout the PCUSA. His very
ordination is a violation of the "fidelity and chastity"
requirement in the Book of Order, G-6.0106b. He is clerk of
session at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, a "More Light"
church that seeks to affirm homosexual behavior as approved by God.
- Reverend Catherine Hughes is a parish associate at Immanuel
Presbyterian Church, a heretical "More Light"
congregation. Her choice to associate with that congregation is
telling.
- Elder Earl Ellis told me in a conversation on HPC grounds that
he does not believe truth can be known in any circumstance, he does
not believe God is personal but is instead a force, he does not
believe the Virgin Birth ever occurred. I did not ask him any more
questions.
- Rev. Chuck Robertson, on May 10, 2005, led the Presbytery of the
Pacific in a prayer to Allah, thanking him for his prophet Mohammed.
He has traveled to Jerusalem with Muslims and Jews to worship in
their synagogues and mosques. Rev. Robertson does not believe that
Muslims and Jews need Jesus for salvation.
More could be told about other members of the AC, but these are the
most egregious. Let me warn the session that these people are enemies of
the Gospel, no matter how much "christianese" they spout.
As for the Presbytery of the Pacific, there are few churches remaining
that remain faithful to the gospel. We have seen that those who are no
longer energized by the good news are now energized by lust for power,
and so the leadership of the presbytery is largely heretical and
immoral.
- Executive Presbyter Linda Culbertson long has actively sought the
approval of homosexual behavior, gay ordination and gay marriage
within the Presbytery of the Pacific and the PCUSA.
- The Presbytery recently celebrated the retirement of Rev. Susan
Craig from United University Church. Rev. Craig co-pastored this
church with her lesbian "spouse," Rev. Bear Ride. The
Presbytery fully approved of – even exulted in – these
Presbyterian pastors' sexual immorality.
- West Hollywood Presbyterian Church is world-famous for its
promotion of homosexuality as behavior acceptable for Christians.
Its pastor, Rev. Dan Smith, is chair of the Presbytery's General
Mission Council.
- The Presbytery did not censure or discipline Rev. Chuck
Robertson for his apostate prayer and "inter-faith"
communion service at the May 10, 2005 Presbytery meeting.
Some of the most telling evidence that the Administrative
Commission and the Presbytery of the Pacific are ungodly is their utter
disregard for the Book of Order with regards to Hollywood
Presbyterian Church:
- The Committee on Ministry purposely avoided bringing the
complaints of the approximately thirty members and staff to the
attention of Hollywood's session. This was in direct violation of
their mandate to bring such matters to the attention of the Session
of the church so that the Session may deal with them (G-11.0502 i.
and j.). The COM also shirked its responsibility to mediate and to
assist the session. Instead, it asked the pastors to resign within
24 hours (never even having spoken to Dr. Manock before) and, when
they refused, called a meeting of presbytery to remove them and
place an Administrative Commission over the session.
- The Presbytery of the Pacific recklessly appointed an
Administrative Commission with original jurisdiction over the
personnel, property and finances of HPC – an AC handpicked by
the COM to do what it could not get the presbytery to do, remove the
pastors. The Book of Order (G-11.0103) required the
presbytery to appoint an administrative commission only after
a thorough investigation and the session was given a full
opportunity to be heard. The Presbytery did not perform any
investigation whatsoever (please don't call the COM's listing of
anonymous complaints an "investigation"). And the
session's elected commissioners were only given five minutes
to speak before the presbytery – definitely not a full
opportunity to be heard.
- The night of May 3 saw the presbytery vote against pastoral
dissolution, but wrongly for an administrative commission. Minutes
after the Presbytery adjourned, early on May 4, the newly appointed
AC served Drs. Meenan and Manock with draconian administrative leave
orders (papers prepared days before the AC was even
appointed). This huge action and decision of the AC violated the
Book of Order's G-9.0505 b., which requires it to afford to
all affected parties fair notice and an opportunity to be heard
before its decisions are enacted. Neither was done.
- In June, a stay of enforcement was duly filed regarding the AC's
placing the pastors on administrative leave. This was done in strict
accordance with the Book of Order D-6.0103 a. (2), which
involved obtaining the signatures of one-third of the members in
attendance at the relevant Presbytery meeting (May 10, 2005, where
the presbytery voted to approve the administrative leave). This stay
of enforcement was connected to a remedial complaint filed by the
pastors and should have removed the administrative leave until their
complaint could be heard by the Synod's Permanent Judicial
Commission. And so the pastors briefly returned on the last Sunday
of June. But the stated clerks of the presbytery and the synod wrote
nonsensical letters denying the stay was valid. And Reverend
Catherine Hughes called Dr. Meenan's cell phone while he was with
out-of-town relatives at Disneyland, threatening that if he returned
to HPC's campus, he would be forcibly removed.
- There are many other points that could be made, such as the
Presbytery Investigative Committee's witch hunt, the COM's refusal
to grant the session time to deal with any problems on its own, the
presbytery's consistent blocking of attempts to obtain attendance
lists of presbytery meetings for use in obtaining signatures for the
stay of enforcement, etc. But the basic point is that the presbytery
and its AC do not follow the Book of Order except when it
complies with their political goals.
Much of the staff of HPC was complicit with the presbytery and the
AC. Few elders that remained on session stood up against the AC or even
diligently investigated the facts of the charges against the pastors or
the Book of Order requirements. Session chose the easiest route:
comply with the AC. I have not heard that anyone who betrayed HPC to the
liberal Presbytery of the Pacific has expressed remorse or contrition.
I want to lovingly warn those on staff and the session who have never
seriously considered the facts I have now laid before you: Do you choose
to be yoked with those who violate both Scripture and the Constitution
of the PCUSA? Do the ends justify the means? You in leadership are held
more accountable than the congregation before God. This is the time to
seek the truth, to repent, and to receive forgiveness.
In the midst of apostate rule by the AC and Presbytery and unrepentant
complicity by much of the staff and session, I cannot continue to
worship and serve as a member of Hollywood Presbyterian Church. With
deep sadness, yet trusting that the Good Shepherd will lead my family
and me to safe pastures, I resign my membership at Hollywood
Presbyterian Church.
In the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus,
Jon Thomasson |