Hollywood elders ask Pacific Presbytery to cancel meeting April 22, 2005
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 22, 2005
Sixteen elders who are currently serving on the session of Hollywood Presbyterian Church have asked the Presbytery of the Pacific to cancel its scheduled special meeting on May 3 to consider dissolving the call of two of Hollywood’s pastors and appointing an administration commission to govern the church.
The elders’ four-page letter was dated April 19 and hand-delivered to the presbytery office in Los Angeles on April 20. The elders also sent a separate letter to ministers and commissioned elders in the presbytery.
The senior pastor of the congregation, Dr. Allen J. Meenan, has been out of the country for three weeks and will return only two days before the scheduled presbytery meeting.
The elders said that “we as a Session object strongly to the COM’s actions to date and to the scheduling of a special meeting of Presbytery to appoint an administrative commission and to dissolve our pastoral relations … Such actions and the proposed actions deny due process and fundamental fairness to this Session, to our pastors and to our congregation.”
The writers said the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry violated several constitutional provisions of the Book of Order and failed to serve as an “instrument of the presbytery for promoting the peace and harmony” of Hollywood Presbyterian. The church, which has 2,700 members, has a long history of vibrant, evangelical ministries.
The letter also contends that if the COM’s proposals are approved, “they will not produce the sweet fruit of reconciliation and healing at HPC. Rather, such actions will produce the bitter harvest of adversarial conflict. Indeed, we believe such actions will destroy the spirit which has produced so many vibrant ministries at HPC. The overwhelming majority of our congregation simply will not accept or acquiesce to actions by COM or Presbytery which are unfair, unjust, unnecessary and unconstitutional.”
The letter asked the COM to respond by April 27 by considering “the propriety and wisdom of its actions to date;” canceling the May 3 meeting; and “deferring any actions regarding the issues at HPC for at least seven (7) months to provide Session reasonable time to resolve such matters.”
The elders also asked the Presbytery to create a special task force of ministers and elders “who have not directly heard and judged the validity of complaints regarding HPC or its pastors.” The task force would provide the session “with appropriate details of such complaints received by the COM to assist us in resolving the issues and concerns raised; and to support us as we may request, to mediate such conflict and achieve reconciliation.”
No one was available Friday in the presbytery office for comment on the letter. A spokesman for the Hollywood session said the church had received no response.