Panel decides not to file charges against minister accused
The Layman Online, September 25, 2003
An investigating committee has decided not to file heresy charges against a Presbyterian minister accused of denying “that he believed in the bodily resurrection and ascension into Heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ as taught by Scripture and our Confessions.”
The committee had been investigating a disciplinary complaint, filed with the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, against the Rev. W. Robert Martin III, who was seeking to become pastor of the 300-member First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, Calif.
Paul Rolf Jensen of Reston, Va., filed the case in North Carolina because, according to a report by the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry, Martin’s transfer to the Presbytery of San Jose had not become effective and, therefore, remained under the jurisdiction of the North Carolina presbytery.
“It has come my attention,” Jensen wrote in an e-mail notice sent to the Presbyterian media September 25, “that the Investigating Committee of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina has voted not to file charges based on my accusation against the Rev. Rob Martin.”
In a telephone conversation, the Rev. J. William (Bill) Taber III, executive presbyter and stated clerk of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, confirmed to The Layman Online that he had received notification from the investigating committee that it would not file charges against Martin.
He also said that the notification did not include a rationale for the committee’s decision, but that the committee was required to file a report with the governing board.
Jensen said he “will file a Petition for Review with the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery asking them to reverse this tragic mistake, as well as to enter an order enjoining the Stated Clerk to rescind any Letter of Transfer he may have issued, or if he has not issued a Letter of Transfer not to do so, pending disposition of the Petition for Review.”
Taber told The Layman Online that he had not yet received a petition or order from Jensen.
Such a process could keep Martin’s career in limbo until the issue is resolved; and, if he is convicted of heresy, he could be ordered to forfeit his credentials as a minister of the Word and Sacrament.
Jensen has filed numerous complaints that accused Presbyterian ministers of “willful and deliberate violation” of their ordination vows because of their public defiance of the church law that prohibits the ordination of practicing homosexuals and/or “marriage” of same-sex couples.
In a May 12 letter to Taber, which was accompanied by the original complaint against Martin, Jensen cited constitutional requirements in the Book of Order (D-10.0103 and D-10.010) that prohibit a presbytery from transferring a minister’s membership to another presbytery “while an inquiry or charges are pending.” The complaint noted that the constitution also requires that “upon receipt of a written complaint, the … stated clerk of presbytery, without further inquiry, shall … refer the statement immediately to an investigating committee.”
In his complaint, Jensen says Martin acted “in willful and deliberate violation of his ordination vows” to:
- ” … accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church and God’s Word to Him.”
W. Robert Martin III
- ” … sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the Confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and to be instructed and led by those confessions as he leads the people of God.
- ” … be a minister of the Word and Sacrament in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture and continually guided by our confessions;
- ” … be a faithful minister, teaching faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ.”
Jensen’s fifth charge was heresy.
Martin accepted the call to Palo Alto after serving for seven years as chaplain of Warren Wilson College, a liberal arts Presbyterian-related school near Asheville, N.C., and pastor of the 325-member Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church. He received his master of divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary.
First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto bills itself as a “More Light Church” in affiliation with More Light Presbyterians, a special-interest group that seeks the repeal of the denomination’s constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard.
The Palo Alto Web site says the congregation supports refugees and conscientious objectors; welcomes gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons into full membership; works for human dignity and survival and is an “Earth and Spirit Church.”