Administrative commission claims jurisdiction of church, but pastor says nothing has changed
By Patrick Jean, April 20, 2007
An administrative commission for North Alabama Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) says it has assumed jurisdiction of a member church that is suing the presbytery for ownership of its property and seeking to leave the denomination.
But the two letters that report the commission’s actions are paper tigers – the commission has taken no steps to enforce its jurisdiction, says the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Huntsville.
The seven-member administrative commission was appointed March 10, 5½ weeks after Central Presbyterian filed suit against the presbytery. The panel was tasked with taking “whatever measures are required to restore the peace, unity and purity of the church, including … assuming original jurisdiction of Central Church by dissolving the session and assuming the duties of the session.”
That’s exactly what the commission did March 27 – at least in writing. In one letter addressed to Dr. Richard Borie Jr., stated clerk of North Alabama Presbytery, and Fred Coffey, clerk of session and elder of Central Presbyterian Church, commission chairman William G. Cockrill writes that the commission “assumes original jurisdiction of the session of Central Presbyterian Church, it appearing that the session is unable or unwilling to manage wisely the affairs of the church. This assumption of jurisdiction is effective immediately.”
The letter states that the session “is hereby dissolved and shall cease to act until such time as this commission or the presbytery shall otherwise direct.”
The letter was copied to all members of Central Presbyterian’s session and the church’s trustees. In a second letter to the church’s trustees, Cockrill writes that the commission “now has supervisory authority with respect to the trustees as was formerly the authority of the session, pursuant to Book of Order G-7.0401 and G-10.0102m.”
Deadline to dismiss lawsuit
The second letter “instructs and directs the trustees” to dismiss the church’s lawsuit against the presbytery. “Said case is to be dismissed immediately” and gave the trustees a deadline of March 29 to do so, the letter states.
That date came and went without the lawsuit being withdrawn. A new letter went out to the trustees April 17 with a new deadline and ultimatum, said Cockrill, who is senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville.
Trustees are now given until April 19 to dismiss the lawsuit, Cockrill said. If they fail to act, he said, they will be assumed to have renounced the jurisdiction of the PCUSA and will no longer be trustees of the church.
Cockrill declined to say how the commission might go about enforcing its assumed jurisdiction of the church. But legal action is one possibility, he said.
Because the commission has taken no action beyond sending letters, it has had no effect on Central Presbyterian’s operations, said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Randy Jenkins. “Everybody is still here,” he said.
“We’re just not going to pay attention to them [the administrative commission],” he said. “We’re not affiliated with that denomination any longer.”
On March 11, the congregation voted 142-9 to leave the PCUSA and align with the smaller, more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. There also were nine “letters of intent,” he said, signed by congregation members who could not be present and two abstentions.
The church has about 265 members by Jenkins’ estimation.
North Alabama Presbytery said the congregational meeting where the vote took place was “improperly called.” Jenkins denies that.
Jenkins said the congregational meeting was hastily arranged after North Alabama Presbytery on Feb. 28 called a special meeting for March 10 to address the lawsuit. The church filed suit Jan. 29 in Madison County Circuit Court, asking that the church, not the PCUSA, be declared the owner of the congregation’s property.
Further powers
But Cockrill and the Rev. Warner Durnell, North Alabama executive presbyter, said the initial intent for the administrative commission was to respond to the lawsuit. It was only when the presbytery got word of Central Presbyterian’s congregational meeting, they said, that further powers were recommended.
Those further powers included “dissolving the pastoral relationship between the Rev. Dr. Randall T. Jenkins and Central Church.” But that task became moot, Cockrill said, when Jenkins renounced his PCUSA ordination.
North Alabama Presbytery sent a letter to Jenkins on March 8, warning him that moderating the March 11 congregational meeting would be seen by the committee on ministry as “not approved work” under clause G-6.0502 of the Book of Order. The presbytery would assume Jenkins “to have renounced the jurisdiction” of the denomination if he moderated the meeting and would remove him, according to the docket of the presbytery’s March 10 meeting.
But Jenkins beat the presbytery to the punch by renouncing his PCUSA ordination. Letters went to Durnell and to PCUSA headquarters in Louisville, Ky., informing them of his decision, he said, and he has contacted the EPC about ordination in that denomination.
Jenkins is chairman of the strategy team for the New Wineskins Associations of Churches, a conservative group that has asked the EPC to establish transitional, non-geographic presbyteries to receive groups of churches into membership in that denomination.
Jenkins remains Central Presbyterian Church’s pastor. The question up for a vote at the March 11 congregational meeting, he said, also touched on whether the congregation wanted to maintain the current pastoral leadership.
The presbytery’s administrative commission was empowered to visit the church to talk to the congregation and determine “whether the pastor and/or the session … has violated the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and violated vows which each took upon ordination and installation into office.” But Jenkins has said the church will not cooperate with the commission.
A hearing on the church’s request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for May 8, Jenkins said. The case was remanded to circuit court Feb. 27, after the presbytery briefly had the case moved to federal court.
Full text of letters
Here is the full text of Cockrill’s letter to Dr. Richard Borie Jr., stated clerk of North Alabama Presbytery, and Fred Coffey, clerk of session and elder of Central Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Ala.:
“This is to advise that the administrative commission for Central Presbyterian Church, pursuant to the authority conferred by the Presbytery of North Alabama on March 10, 2007, assumes original jurisdiction of the session of Central Presbyterian Church, it appearing that the session is unable or unwilling to manage wisely the affairs of the church.
“This assumption of jurisdiction is effective immediately. The session of Central Presbyterian Church is hereby dissolved and shall cease to act until such time as this commission or the presbytery shall otherwise direct.”
Here is the full text of Cockrill’s letter to the trustees of Central Presbyterian Church:
“This is to advise that the administrative commission for Central Presbyterian Church has assumed jurisdiction of the church and dissolved its session, effective immediately. (See the enclosed letter to the session.)
“This commission now has supervisory authority with respect to the trustees as was formerly the authority of the session, pursuant to Book of Order G-7.0401 and G-10.0102m.
“The commission now instructs and directs the trustees to dismiss that certain litigation pending in the circuit court for Madison County, styled ‘Central Presbyterian Church in the United States of America of Huntsville, Ala., Plaintiff, v. North Alabama Presbytery, Defendant,’ Case No. CV2007-166-JPS. Said case is to be dismissed immediately and in no event later than the end of business on March 29, 2007.”
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org.