Suit targets minister, Fifth Avenue church
The Layman Online, October 28, 2005
Two New York newspapers reported today that a $5-million lawsuit has been filed against Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, its senior pastor, Dr. Thomas Tewell, and the Presbytery of New York City.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Superior Court by Joseph Vione, charges that Tewell tricked him and his wife, Rachel Vione, into marriage counseling so that he could have an affair with his wife.
Joseph Vione also says in his suit that Fifth Avenue, which is one of the largest and most prestigious churches in the Presbyterian Church (USA), shirked its duties to investigate allegations made by other congregants that Tewell and Rachel Vione were having an affair.
The New York Post and The New York Daily News both gave some details about the lawsuit. The Post also quoted an unidentified church spokesman as saying that Fifth Avnue was “saddened by these events” and welcomes “the opportunity to meet with those involved and discuss these difficult concerns in the spirit of prayerful respect.”
The lawsuit said Mrs. Vione admitted to her husband, who is suing her for divorce, that she had an affair with Tewell.
Tewell is on administrative leave with pay while the Presbytery of New York City investigates “”serious allegations … about the nature of his relationship with a married woman,” Dawson Horn III, clerk of the Fifth Avenue session, announced on August 29 in a letter to the congregation.
The Layman Online has published a number of letters from Fifth Avenue members since Horn’s announcement. Several members expressed their appreciation for his sermons and said he should be forgiven and allowed to return to the pulpit.
Tewell, who has been married for 30 years, has not responded publicly to the accusations against him or the presbytery’s investigation. Shortly before the accusations became public, he resigned as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary.
Once described as an evangelical, Tewell, 56, became Fifth Avenue’s minister in 1994. In recent years, he has led the 3,600-member congregation, once noted as a citadel of evangelical preaching, into greater theological diversity. At his urging, the session voted to become a member of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an organization devoted to the repeal of the denomination’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard.