Fifth Ave. pastor steps aside while presbytery investigates alleged relationship with woman
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 31, 2005
Dr. Thomas K. Tewell, senior pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, has taken administrative leave following “serious allegations … about the nature of his relationship with a married woman” in the congregation.
Thomas K. TewellDawson Horn III, clerk of the Fifth Avenue session, said in an August 29 letter to the congregation that Tewell requested the leave while an investigative committee of the Presbytery of New York City reviews the allegations “to determine whether to take formal action against Dr. Tewell.”
Tewell is also chairman of the Board of Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary. No one was immediately available at the seminary Wednesday to say whether Tewell was temporarily or permanently stepping aside from that position.
Horn said Tewell requested that he be placed on administrative leave.
“Dr. Tewell’s request emanates from serious allegations that were made to him about the nature of his relationship with a married woman in our congregation,” Horn said in his letter to the congregation. “Dr. Tewell reported these allegations to the chairperson of the Personnel Committee and to me, the clerk of session. Guided by our personnel policies, I promptly informed the Presbytery of New York City of these allegations. In accordance with rules and regulations applicable to the Presbytery, an investigative committee, or IC, was formed. It is the duty of the IC to determine whether to take formal action against Dr. Tewell.”
Horn said he could not predict how long the presbytery investigation would last. “The IC has interviewed the parties and others. If the IC decides that a charge is appropriate, it will make that recommendation to the Permanent Judicial Commission and the Commission will decide what further action to take. The matter is under the active consideration of the IC and it would therefore be inappropriate to speculate as to its findings or to discuss the testimony it has received.”
Tewell beame the senior pastor of Fifth Avenue in 1994. His previous pastorate was the 5,000-member Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, where Tewell was considered an evangelical.
More recently, however, he supported causes that are opposed by many evangelicals, including abortion and the ordination of practicing homosexuals.
Fifth Avenue, with 3,578 members – 2,196 when Tewell began his ministry in New York – is one of the largest congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA). In the July/August issue of The Voice, Fifth Avenue’s newsletter, Tewell announced that the congregation’s session had voted to join the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, an organization that seeks to repeal the constitutional standard that prohibits the ordination of practicing homosexuals and adulterers.
More than four years before the session voted to join the Covenant Network, Tewell spoke at the organization’s 2000 national conference. His sermon, titled “Coloring Outside the Lines,” was an account of how he came to believe that homosexual behavior was acceptable.
He said in that sermon that he had been influenced by John Wesley’s “quadrilateral,” that “when you’re trying to make a decision, look to the Bible, to tradition, to human reason, and to human experience.” Those were considered the four equal standards for theological authority, but the national assembly of the United Methodist Church later rejected them as equals and now says Scripture is the highest authority.
“And so I accepted the invitation to preach tonight at this service of worship as a way of saying that I really do believe there is a new wind blowing in the Presbyterian Church (USA),” Tewell told the 2000 Covenant Network Conference. “I have felt it in my own soul. It really is the Holy Spirit. It is a new idea that has grabbed hold of Peter’s mind and my mind and, I believe, all of our minds. I believe God is doing a new thing.”
Tewell made a pledge “to pray for and to work for the elimination of that section [the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard] from the Book of Order, and to continue to work for inclusivity, not only of people of different sexual orientations, but of all people. And I truly pray for the day when the church of Jesus Christ will be as inclusive as the love and grace of God.”
In the July/August newsletter column titled “In God’s House … All Are Welcome,” Tewell said, “Gay and lesbian people are among the most gifted in our congregation and some are in a long-term relationship of fidelity and trust. It is painful to many of us at FAPC that our denomination’s current policy precludes ordaining gay and lesbian people from service as pastors, elders or deacons.”
He said the session voted to join the Covenant Network “in faithfulness to our God who, throughout biblical history, chose surprising people to be instruments of grace in the world. Who, for example, would have ever imagined that Jesus would have chosen a tax collector like Matthew to be one of the twelve disciples – or Mary Magdalene and other women to be in his inner circle of followers? … God’s ways are indeed surprising. We are joining Covenant Network because we believe that we must be open to God’s spirit and looking for the people who God has called into leadership.”
“At Fifth Avenue,” Tewell added, “we are a congregation that celebrates our theological diversity. We believe that we need diverse theological points of view in order to be the whole body of Christ. As Paul said in I Corinthians 13, ‘If all the body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the entire body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? As it is, God has arranged the organs of the body as He chose!’ I thank God to be a part of a congregation where all are really welcome!”
Tewell is a graduate of Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. He has a Masters of Divinity Degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry from Drew Theological School in Madison, N.J.
Horn’s August 29 letter to the congregation:
My Beloved Sisters and Brothers of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church,
One of the greatest privileges and joys of my life is serving as your Clerk of Session. It is also one of my greatest responsibilities especially now as I have been asked by the Session to communicate some important and frankly unsettling, information to you.
To begin, I want to advise you that the Session has granted a request by Our Senior Pastor, the Reverend Dr. Thomas K. Tewell, to take an administrative leave effective immediately.
Dr. Tewell’s request emanates from serious allegations that were made to him about the nature of his relationship with a married woman in our congregation. Dr. Tewell reported these allegations to the Chairperson of the Personnel Committee and to me, the clerk of Session. Guided by our personnel policies, I promptly informed the Presbytery of New York City of these allegations. In accordance with rules and regulations applicable to the Presbytery, an Investigative Committee, or IC, was formed. It is the duty of the IC to determine whether to take formal action against Dr. Tewell. While this investigation is proceeding. I ask your prayers for all concerned.
The IC has interviewed the parties and others. If the IC decides that a charge is appropriate, it will make that recommendation to the Permanent Judicial Commission and the Commission will decide what further action to take. The matter is under the active consideration of the IC and it would therefore be inappropriate to speculate as to its findings or to discuss the testimony it has received. At this juncture, I cannot tell you how long this process may take.
The Session and Staff want you to know that we understand this is very difficult news to receive. As we await a final resolution, we want to assure you that we have put procedures in place to continue to move forward. Those procedures include:
- The Reverend Randy Weber has assumed acting head of staff duties and will work closely in partnership with Pastors Jan Ammon, Paul Rock and Nora Tisdale.
- All four of the pastors have agreed to assume “pulpit duties” for at least the next few Sundays.
- Session members have been and will continue to meet with staff as we evaluate what adjustments will have to be made to the calendar for the upcoming year.
- In September, leaders from our congregation will offer information, listening and support gatherings for you.
Please know our prayers are with our community or faith, and we ask for your prayers at this time. If you have any immediate questions or concerns, you may call the Church Office and we will connect you with a pastor or lay leader as soon as possible. And obviously, you will be promptly advised of new developments.
Some of you may feel moved to contact Dr. Tewell and his family directly. While you may be motivated by the best of intentions, he understands that such communication is ill-advised and inappropriate at this time, and I must strongly discourage you from that course. The most helpful and effective thing that we as a congregation can do at this stage, is to pray that God’s will be worked through this situation and that God’s comfort and healing be felt by all of those affected.
I want to conclude by saying that the Session and staff of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church have deep faith that God’s everlasting arms are wrapped around us during this challenging time. We are confident those arms will never let us go.
We hope to see you on Homecoming at 9:30 or 11:15 AM services and we look forward to our new program year.
Yours in Christ
Dawson Horn, III
Clerk of Session,
Fifth Ave Presbyterian Church