Pennsylvania pastor becomes 3rd candidate for stated clerk
The Layman Online, March 10, 2004
Saying that “the PCUSA is in a state of anarchy,” the Rev. L. Rus Howard has become the third announced candidate in the 2004 stated clerk election in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
He will face the Rev. Robert “Bob” Davis of the Presbytery of San Diego, a Presbyterian minister and the executive director of the Presbyterian Forum, and the incumbent, Clifton Kirkpatrick, who is seeking a third, four-year term.
As the highest constitutional officer in the denomination, the stated clerk is required to “preserve and defend” the constitutional documents that bind Presbyterians – The Book of Confessions and the Book of Order. The clerk also is the denomination’s chief ecumenical officer.
The stated clerk election will occur during the June 26-July 3 meeting of the 216th General Assembly in Richmond, Va.
Howard, the pastor of Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church in Venetia, Pa., is no stranger to the issues facing the denomination. In October 2002, he was one of five Presbyterian ministers who taped a poster-size “Call to Confession and Repentance” on a wall near the entrance of the Presbyterian Center in Louisville. That declaration charged that the church is “decaying and dying in the belly of the beast” and is “irretrievably apostate under current management.” The following month, he initiated a petition drive that cited the “failed leadership” of Kirkpatrick and sought his resignation.
In a statement sent to the Presbyterian media announcing his candidacy, Howard wrote that, “On February 27, 2004, I mailed my application to run for the office of Stated Clerk to the Stated Clerk Review/Nomination Committee. This mailing met the deadlines established by the denomination.”
Howard defined anarchy as “‘a state of political disorder and confusion … and the absence of any cohering principle as a common standard or purpose.’ Each time a clergy-person, an elder, a congregation, a presbytery, an officer, or any governing body in the PCUSA is allowed to defy our constitution without discipline, the PCUSA inches closer to total anarchy.”
“Not only are individuals and governing bodies defying the constitution at an increasing rate,” he wrote, “but our judicial system has become corrupted. The two primary factors leading to the corruption of our judicial system are:
- 1. The politicization of the election of members of Permanent Judicial Commissions who often interpret our polity and make rulings according to their political bent, not according to our constitution or Scripture.
- 2. The fact that the Stated Clerk of the PCUSA has effectively declared that no one is empowered to enforce the decisions of a Permanent Judicial Commission.
“All of this would be acceptable if we were congregationalists, like the Southern Baptists. But we are not! The PCUSA has always prided herself on being a ‘connectional church.’ As members of the PCUSA, we are uniquely connected, bound to each other, through our constitution. Each of us has willingly entered into this mutual covenant. No one has been forced to become or remain a member of the PCUSA. We have chosen to live together and to govern ourselves according to the dictates of our constitution. When someone chooses to defy our constitution, he/she breaks our fellowship. When we do not discipline those who willfully defy our constitution, we render our constitution worthless.”
Howard then posed the question as to how did the denomination reach “this point of disorder and anarchy? How did we come to this time when those who defy the constitution are protected and those who defend the constitution are demonized?”
He said that the PCUSA is “suffering from a failure of leadership! As always, leadership failures begin at the top…. Our current Stated Clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, has failed us as a constitutional leader, as a denominational leader and as an ecumenical leader. His unwillingness to openly defend and uphold our constitution is leading us into a state of anarchy. His continued silence in the face of growing defiance has severely hurt and damaged the PCUSA. Clifton Kirkpatrick is suffering from anarthria, the loss of the ability to speak. His silence has encouraged the anarchist in our midst.”
“Our constitution is being mocked. Our connection is being torn asunder. Our Biblical and Reformed faith is being destroyed while our stated clerk says nothing,” Howard said, adding: “I love our church. I have no greater desire than to see the PCUSA return to her Biblical and Reformed witness.”