 Confessing Church order won’t be enforced as appeal continues By John H. Adams The Layman Volume 35, Number 3 Posted June 3, 2002 The complainant has withdrawn his request that a regional church court require the session of First Presbyterian Church in Sebastian, Fla., to immediately recant its Confessing Church resolution. The Sebastian church had appealed the ruling by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of Central Florida to the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the South Atlantic. Normally, when ecclesiastical cases are under appeal, both parties agree that implementation of the court order be delayed until all appeals are completed. But Norman F. Blessing, a Sebastian elder who filed the complaint against his fellow session members, asked for an immediate enforcement of the presbytery court’s ruling. His three-member Committee of Counsel asked Sebastian’s counsel to drop the request for immediate enforcement in exchange for an agreement to cancel a hearing before the synod court. Trial set Sept. 12 The synod court has docketed the case for its review Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. in the synod offices in Jacksonville, Fla. The agreement to postpone enforcement of the presbytery court’s order came three weeks after a group of pastors and lay people from Confessing Churches conducted a 3 1/2-hour prayer vigil at the presbytery office in Orlando. The reason for the vigil was to express solidarity with the session of the Sebastian church.
The Rev. Howard Edington, senior pastor of the 5,500-member First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, and several ministers on his staff participated in the vigil. “The great heresy of our times is that we have become a church of the culture,” said Edington. “When we have a band of believers who are willing to stand – to say, ‘We believe in Christ. We believe in Scripture. We believe in holy living.’ – we claim the heritage of our faith.” First Presbyterian in Orlando is the largest of more than 1,260 churches in the Confessing Church Movement. When the presbytery court’s decision in the Sebastian case was announced in February, during the movement’s national celebration, Edington said he would ask his session to redirect its per-capita. Redirecting per capita He told The Layman that his session has acted on that request – redirecting its 2002 per capita apportionment that would normally go to the General Assembly. That amounts to about $27,500, which must be paid by the Presbytery of Central Florida if it has enough money. Many Scripture passages read during the vigil cited the chaos in the first-century Christian church caused by false teachers and dark spiritual forces. A prayer by Jonathas Moreira, a native of Brazil and a member of the First Presbyterian staff, expressed the sentiment of the group. “Lord, you know what’s going on in our church. You know that the enemy is trying to destroy it. We ask your blessings upon our presbytery.” The April 18 vigil began at 8 a.m. in the parking lot that is the main entryway to the presbytery’s offices. None of the presbytery employees stopped to observe the vigil, and none came out of their offices to greet the group. Who’ll say, ‘That’s enough?’ “We have shaded your light with political correctness,” prayed the Rev. L. Rus Howard of Peters Creek Presbyterian Church in Venetia, Pa. “We have shaded your light with cultural fantasies.” He prayed that God would raise up leaders who would say, “‘That’s enough.’” He also prayed for Blessing, the Sebastian elder who filed the complaint against his fellow session members. “We pray that he, too, says, ‘Let’s stop this foolishness.’” After praying in the parking lot for a wide range of subjects – the Sebastian case, the presbytery’s employees, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Supreme Court in the aftermath of its ruling that child pornography is free speech – the vigil moved to the front of the building on Magnolia Avenue, a busy thoroughfare. Stopping twice – at the main entrance to the office building and another entrance, both on Magnolia – the members of the vigil continued their prayers, reading Scripture and singing hymns. Prayers for passersby Passersby, including a homeless man carrying his belongings, glanced their way, but only one, a young Hispanic man, stopped. Tim Filston, an associate minister at First Presbyterian, shook the Hispanic man’s hand and talked to him briefly. Under Moreira’s leadership, First Presbyterian has begun a ministry to the growing Hispanic community in Orlando. Edington, watching the traffic on the sidewalk and on Magnolia, prayed for God’s grace and mercy for “those who drive by in Mercedes sports cars [a young woman] and those who carry all of their possessions on their back.” |
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