Moderator, stated clerk criticize Lay Committee
The Layman Online, August 8, 2001
General Assembly Moderator Jack B. Rogers and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick have criticized the Presbyterian Lay Committee because an editorial in the July edition of The Presbyterian Layman said the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) was apostate.
Rogers and Kirkpatrick registered their criticism in a letter to the directors of the Lay Committee. Their letter also criticized a column by Robert L. Howard, chairman of the Lay Committee.
They also sent copies of the letter to the commissioners who attended the 213th General Assembly.
Directors of the Lay Committee are preparing a response. That response will be published on The Layman Online when it is available.
In the meantime, people who have read the letter by Rogers and Kirkpatrick have begun expressing their views in letters to The Layman Online.
The issue of apostasy has been raised by a number of Presbyterians. One pastor, Gerrit Dawson of First Presbyterian Church in Lenoir, N.C., a commissioner to the 213th General Assembly, preached a sermon on that theme.