Merry Christmas in Heartland Presbytery
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online, December 14, 2007
Heartland Presbytery’s jackboots have done it again. First they dumped the elected lay leaders of one of their most vigorous congregations, triggering an exodus of more than 300 members and saddling a tiny remnant that it calls “the true church” with a million dollar-mortgage. Now, they are turning on the pastor of that Paola, Kan., congregation, the Rev. Kirk Johnston, recommending to a called presbytery meeting Dec. 18 that he be defrocked and his salary and the medical coverage that protects his family be revoked retroactively to Nov. 19.
Why this assault on Pastor Johnston? What possible offense could have provoked Heartland’s Yuletide lynching?
Heartland’s embarrassment
Considering the fact that a ringleader in this sordid affair is Committee on Ministry Chairman Brian Ellison, this looks a lot like a grudge match. In 2003, Ellison led Heartland into making a fool of itself before the entire Presbyterian Church (USA). The principle that local church sessions have the absolute right to determine how their church offerings are spent has long been established. Not only is that principle stated explicitly in the denomination’s Constitution, but judicial precedents and explicit actions by the denomination’s General Assembly underscore it.
Encouraged by Ellison, Heartland enacted a policy punishing Johnston and the elders of Paola’s First Presbyterian Church because they would not make payments (per capita) to the General Assembly. Paola responded by filing a remedial case against the presbytery with the Permanent Judicial Commission. Ellison got himself named as Heartland’s lead counsel, personally arguing the case, whereupon he suffered a humiliating defeat. In a 9-0 verdict, the denomination’s highest court ruled Heartland’s policy unconstitutional.
Payback time
That embarrassment may shed light on Ellison’s passion to defrock Johnston. As chairman of Heartland’s powerful Committee on Ministry, Ellison has played a key role in recent events. It was the Committee on Ministry that recommended the presbytery’s creation of an administrative commission with powers to take over Johnston’s church and remove its minister from office. Thusly empowered, the commission dumped Paola’s session and placed Johnston on administrative leave without specifying any charges against him.
When placing Johnston on administrative leave, the commission told him that it would continue paying his salary and providing medical coverage for his family provided that he “no longer perform[ed] any pastoral and ministerial functions (G-6.0200) among the congregation of First Presbyterian Church of Paola or any worshipping community within the bounds of Heartland Presbytery.”
Johnston has not performed any such functions for the now severely diminished First Presbyterian Church in Paola, 70 percent of whose members have left the PCUSA. He has, however, preached to the new, non-PCUSA Lighthouse Presbyterian Church, a congregation that is in no way accountable to or jurisdictionally “within the bounds” of Heartland Presbytery.
Beyond the boundary
Seizing on the fact that Johnston preached at the Lighthouse church, Ellison and his colleagues mounted an attack. In a letter that Johnston received Dec. 3, Ellison ordered Johnston to appear before a meeting of his committee Dec. 6 to answer charges that he violated the administrative commission’s prohibition. Johnston responded in writing that three days’ notice was insufficient for him to obtain legal counsel and prepare to defend himself against the allegation. In his written response, Johnston stated that his having preached at a church that is entirely unrelated or accountable to Heartland Presbytery cannot be construed to be preaching to a church “in the bounds of Heartland Presbytery.”
Rather than set a meeting for a later date when Johnston and his attorney could attend, Ellison proceeded to convene the Dec. 6 meeting of his committee where, absent Johnston’s appearance, the committee decided to call a special meeting of the presbytery Dec. 18 for the purpose of defrocking him.
Johnston’s ‘guilt’
The Committee on Ministry will recommend the defrocking on the following grounds:
- (1) Johnston was guilty of “persisting in a disapproved work,” presumably by his having preached in a non-PCUSA pulpit after having been barred from the pulpit of First Presbyterian Church.
- (2) Johnston “accepted membership of any character in another denomination” (emphasis added).
- (3) Johnston performed “pastoral duties” at a “worshipping community within the geographic bounds of Heartland Presbytery” (emphasis added).
Johnston denies the three charges. He says that at no time was he ever told, orally or in writing, that preaching on his own time at the Lighthouse Church would be deemed “a disapproved work.”
He says that when he was informed that the administrative commission might revoke his family’s health-care benefits retroactively, he approached officials of another denomination, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, to inquire if they would accept him into membership and under their medical care program in the event that Heartland revoked his family’s health-care coverage.
“My attempt to secure this protection for my family certainly does not constitute my becoming ‘a member of another denomination,'” he said. “Any husband and father who had been threatened in writing as I had been would seek some refuge that could be activated if the threat materialized.”
Johnston points out that the Committee on Ministry’s phrase, “within the geographic bounds,” is brand new. “They know that this language was not part of the administrative commission’s proscription when it placed me on administrative leave. I have not preached in any church that is within the jurisdictional bounds of Heartland Presbytery. Preaching at the Lighthouse Church is not materially different than appearing as a guest preacher at a local Baptist, Methodist or non-denominational church. Ellison’s committee cannot now go back and retroactively edit geography language into the original text. What they are doing is patently unfair.”
Walking in darkness
So, on the week before Christmas, Heartland Presbytery will convene what promises to be a Grinch-like gathering, orchestrated in large part by Scrooge-like Brian Ellison. Considering the fact that it already has virtually destroyed one of its most promising congregations, the odds that peace and goodwill will prevail are highly unlikely. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness have conspired to defrock a fellow minister. The stage has been set.
But darkness will not enshroud what happens Dec. 18. Under the influence of the administrative commission and Committee on Ministry, the presbytery’s majority may steal Johnston’s credentials, but they will not do so in secret (although some may insist on a secret ballot, hoping they can hide their complicity). Nor will they injure the love of those whom Johnston has faithfully served as pastor during some 15 years of ministry. Nor will they touch his soul.
Johnston will not be on trial in that Dec. 18 event. Heartland Presbytery has placed itself in the dock, and the world will know the deed that is done.
The Rev. Parker T. Williamson is editor emeritus of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.