Presbytery’s second vote backs decision to sideline two ministers
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 13, 2005
The Presbytery of the Pacific has turned aside an attempt to reinstate two ministers as pastors of Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.
An earlier report on The Layman Online incorrectedly stated that the presbytery voted 71-58 to reinstate Dr. Alan Meenan and Dr. David Manock as pastors of the congregation, but that Stated Clerk Frank Marshall ruled the vote invalid because it lacked a two-thirds majority.
But that was not the case. The actual vote was 71-58 against reinstating the ministers. Marshall did rule at one point during the presbytery meeting that a two-thirds vote would be necessary to reconsider the issue, but he later changed his mind.
A report to The Layman Online incorrectedly stated that the 71-58 vote failed for lack of a super majority. The vote against reinstating Meenan and Manock occurred at the presbytery’s May 10 regular meeting.
On May 3, at a called meeting, the presbytery voted to appoint an administrative commission to assume original jurisdiction at Hollywood. But the presbytery also voted to affirm the ministries of Meenan and Manock at that meeting.
Just minutes after the Presbytery of the Pacific adjourned the May 3 called meeting, having affirmed the ministries of the two pastors at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, a newly appointed presbytery administrative commission told the pastors to pack up.
Most of the commissioners and an estimated 500 church members who attended the presbytery meeting had dispersed when, about 12:30 a.m., a member of the commission and the commission’s lawyer, Tony de la Rosa, hand delivered letters to Meenan and Manock.
The letters instructed the pastors to go on indefinite paid administrative leave immediately; clean out their offices and turn in their keys in less than 12 hours, by noon on May 4; and not to speak to any members of the congregation, staff or the session. They had been written before the presbytery met.
On May 6, some members of the Hollywood session filed a remedial complaint with the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Southern California, asking that the presbytery’s May 4 action be overturned and seeking a stay of enforcement that would allow the Hollywood session to be reinstated as the governing body of the congregation.
De la Rosa, a former chairman of the litigation committee that advises General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, has been a long-time leader of the movement to ordain practicing homosexuals in the PCUSA. He led a demonstration against the denomination’s policy at the 1996 General Assembly in Albuquerque, after commissioners voted to ask presbyteries to make the prohibition constitutional.
According to one elder, who asked not to be quoted by name because of other action that might be forthcoming in the case, De la Rosa said the letter had been written earlier in the day – even before the presbytery voted to establish the administrative commission.
The presbytery meeting on May 4 was a battleground between men and women who supported Meenan and Manock and those who opposed the ministers and some of the changes at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, a 2,700-member congregation with a distinguished evangelical history.
The Committee on Ministry received complaints from a small minority (estimated to be about 40 people). In the weeks that followed, this group grew to 108, who signed a petition calling for Meenan and Manock to be ousted.
The Committee on Ministry had built up its case against the two pastors and to support its call for a special presbytery meeting without conducting any hearing prior to the presbytery meeting. At one point, the committee met privately with Meenan and Manock and demanded that they turn in their resignations within 24 hours; otherwise, the committee warned, they would get no severance pay. Both ministers declined the offer.
At the beginning of the special presbytery meeting, Leon E. Fanniel, pastor emeritus of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and a member of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, gave the presbytery a preview of the constitutional issues that commissioners were facing.
“This is an administrative hearing,” he said. “This is not a meeting of a judicial court. The matter of due process does not apply to our work.” He said there had been no rulings of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission requiring that due process and fairness apply to administrative reviews and decisions.
But there have been at least three rulings that directly contradict what Fanniel said, and they occurred during his tenure on the PJC.
In Gaba v. The Presbytery of Eastern Virginia, a 2002 case, the GAPJC ruled that a presbytery action that is based on “findings” that were obtained in violation of due process are erroneous. The commission said the principle of “fundamental fairness” applies in any case of presbytery governance, whether by a commission, committee or the presbytery itself.
Also in 2002, in Ernest R.D. Smart v. the Presbytery of Baltimore, the GAPJC held that Smart, an evangelical pastor, had been forced during proceedings by an administrative commission to resign from his pulpit without being entitled to present his case. The General Assembly ordered the PJC of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic to grant Smart a new trial on his remedial complaint.
In the case of Parker T. Williamson v. the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, the PJC of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic held that Williamson was denied fundamental fairness and due process by the presbytery, during its administrative process, by voting not to validate his ministry as the chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. The presbytery did not appeal that decision, and the General Assembly PJC recognized the synod’s findings in its discussion of other issues received on appeal.
Before voting on Meenan and Manock, the presbytery approved the Committee on Ministry’s recommendation to form an administrative committee with the authority to assume original jurisdiction over the church – i.e., to replace the session as the governing body. That was approved by a standing vote – approximately 60/40 percent – after commissioners conducted a 90-minute hearing.
Presbytery leaders structured the hearing by allowing 22 persons to speak for each side, thus giving the impression that the ratio of dissidents and supporters of the pastors was 50-50 and minimizing the fact that more than 500 church members had come to the meeting to show their support for their pastors.
George Wilde, a layman who is chairman of the Committee on Ministry, presented a 21-page report that included numerous unattributed quotes from the ministers’ opponents and no comments from supporters. And another committee member later began reading – again unattributed – additional quotes from opponents until some commissioners complained that the process was too one-sided and his recitation was halted.
One of the 22 people speaking on behalf of the two pastors was Jeff Traintime, coordinator of communications for Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Traintime said he once had a disagreement with Meenan and decided to attend a private meeting with Sandra Mader, the congregation’s former clerk of session, and others who opposed the pastors.
“Sandra told us to write a letter to presbytery because she ‘had friends at the presbytery who were going to help us,'” Traintime said.
Mader is vice moderator of the presbytery and moderator elect. She is also a member of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry, but Wilde said she recused herself from voting on the Hollywood issues.
Meenan and Manock did have their say at the presbytery meeting before the commissioners voted against the Committee on Ministry’s recommendation that their calls to Hollywood be dissolved.
“This has been a very painful process and a very painful evening,” Meenan said, after hearing himself attacked by the Committee on Ministry and Hollywood’s dissidents as “arrogant,” “dictatorial,” “stonewalling” and “manipulative,” among other pejoratives. “Many of the things said absolutely shocked me,” he said. “I have been accused of saying things that are outside my vocabulary. Not only do I not talk that way, but I don’t think that way.”
He added, “Is Hollywood Presbyterian Church divided? Yes. Is it deeply divided? No. I wish I could provide everyone in our congregation everything they want, but there are painful decisions to be made by a majority of the session.”
Some of the controversial issues included a $840,000 deficit in 2004, which was eliminated by drawing down cash reserves; a $60,000 contribution to a Billy Graham crusade; and a mission trip that Meenan led to India, where there were reportedly 50,000 converts during a week of services at which he preached.
“Did I trust my administrative staff too much? Probably,” Meenan said, responding to the fiscal problems, which have included no evidence of misappropriation of funds. “Did I trust my staff too much? Probably.”
But Meenan, who views his role at the church as pastor and teacher more than being the administrative executive, said steps had been taken to rectify the financial problems and that the staff was capable of dealing with the issues and the church members who disagree. “We may be less than perfect, but we’re excitingly imperfect.”
Declaring that the Committee on Ministry had failed “to do its homework” – namely by listening only to the dissidents – Meenan said he knew of no reason to resign from the pastorate. He noted that neither he nor Manock had taught heresy, compromised themselves morally or committed any criminal act. “To resign now would not be in the best interest of Hollywood Presbyterian Church,” he said.
In fact, supporters – and many opponents alike – agreed that Meenan’s preaching was solidly Biblical and evangelical and that many members, including a wave of newcomers, had become Christians under his teaching. After a 20-year decline in membership, Hollywood has gained members since 1999.
Manock, a native of Japan and the son of an American soldier and a Japanese mother, said the Committee on Ministry tried to pressure Meenan and him to resign without a hearing before the presbytery. He said they were told that, with their immediate resignations, they could be assured of a “good severance;” otherwise, they would receive no severance pay.
Like Meenan, Manock said the Committee on Ministry only wanted to hear one side of the story. He said he would have welcomed a pastoral role by the committee and criticism of his style. “I’m always eager to learn,” said Manock, who has a Ph.D. in pastoral counseling from Fuller Theological Seminary.
The May 10 presbytery meeting included an interfaith worship service with a prayer to “Allah” a reading from the Koran and the second vote on the Hollywood issue.
The Rev. Mark Nazarian of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Redondo Beach made the motion to place on the docket a proposal to rescind the May 4 presbytery vote to appoint an administrative commission to govern Hollywood Presbyterian Church.
Marshall, the stated clerk, objected that the presbytery must be notified before a motion to rescind could be put on the docket.
But Nazarian reminded Marshall that he had had previously contacted him by telephone and e-mail and asked him to notify the presbytery, but that Marshall had chosen not to do so.
Nazarian also mentioned that he had made the same request to presbytery Moderator Vahe Simonian on the phone. Marshall did allow a vote on Nazarian’s motion for placing the issue on the docket. It was approved 60-51.
But before the actual vote on the motion, the presbytery heard readings from Scripture and the Koran. The Islamic text, Surah 30:37-38, said: “When we give men the taste of a good thing they rejoice in it, but when evil befalls them through their own fault, they grow despondent. Do they not see that God gives abundantly to whom He will and sparingly to whom He pleases? Surely there are signs in this for true believers. Therefore give their due to the next of kin, to the destitute, and to the traveler in need. That is best for those that strive to please God; such men will surely prosper.”
Then a prayer was read: “O Lord, you are the one God to be worshipped by all peoples, the one called Allah by your Muslim children, descendants of Abraham and Hagar. Give us grace to hear your truth in the teachings of Mohammed, the prophet….”
After that, members of the presbytery requested that the moderator move the discussion of Hollywood up on the docket. An hour and half of often intense discussion followed.
The closing remarks were made by Nazarian, who asked how this Administrative Commission, none of whom had been on the Committee on Ministry that investigated the pastors, could have had sufficient information to make the decision to put the Hollywood pastors on administrative leave immediately after last week’s Presbytery meeting, having prepared documents to that effect before the May 4 called presbytery meeting even occurred. This question went unanswered.
Meanwhile, attendance at worship services on May 8 was down sharply, according to one Hollywood elder.