Williamson defends himself in letter to presbytery committee
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, December 8, 2003
Unable to attend a meeting in which the validation of his ministry will be discussed, Parker T. Williamson has written a letter saying that a task force’s recommendation was “a feckless attempt to impugn the integrity of a call that has been validated by this presbytery each year since 1989.”
The task force of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina voted 4-1 last week to propose that Williamson be demoted to inactive status and placed on probation for three years. The presbytery’s Committee on Ministry will meet Dec. 9 to receive the task force’s report and make its own recommendation.
If the Committee on Ministry and the presbytery concur with the task force, Williamson could eventually be defrocked by the presbytery. The Book of Order requires that a minister be removed from presbytery membership if his ministry is not validated within three years.
In his letter to the Committee on Ministry, Williamson, the chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor-in-chief of its publication, questioned the grounds for disputing the legitimacy of his ministry.
The committee did not spell out its reasons, other than refer to the “character” and “conduct” of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. “What ‘character’ and what ‘conduct’ does the task force deem sufficiently offensive to warrant the denial of ministerial validation?” Williamson asked in his letter. “The task force doesn’t say, providing those who receive its recommendation imaginative opportunities for filling in the blanks.”
Furthermore, he said, “I strive to be faithful to Scripture and the Reformed tradition, praying that my actions are fully consonant with the ‘character and conduct’ of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, an organization of Christians whose faith and life I hold in the highest esteem. It is precisely their mission to which I have been called.”
The chairman of the task force, Mary V. Atkinson, a former employee of the denomination, was interviewed briefly last week by The Layman Online and asked to spell out what the task force meant by the “character” and “conduct” of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. But she would not specify what that meant, and, after objecting that The Layman Online was preparing a story on the issue, she quickly concluded the interview with “no comment.”
However, Atkinson later gave a full interview to the denomination’s official press, the Presbyterian News Service.
According to the news service, Atkinson said the grounds for voting not to validate Williamson’s ministry were the “Declaration of Conscience” by the Presbyterian Lay Committee.
When Williamson and Peggy Hedden, a Columbus, Ohio, attorney and chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, met with the task force, Hedden, in the interest of full disclosure, distributed copies of the “Declaration of Conscience.”
The Presbyterian News Service reported that, according to Atkinson, it was the declaration “that tipped the scales for us. We felt that that was just going way too far.” Although the Lay Committee’s statement stops short of directly urging sessions to withhold payments to the denomination, she said, “We felt that they were definitely trying to encourage churches to withhold funds.”
The declaration makes no such claim. The declaration calls on Presbyterian ministers, officers and members to respond to “our erosion of faith and life” in the PCUSA by “prayerfully considering” redirecting their tithes and offerings away from programs and activities in the denomination that do not reflect the Reformed tradition of the denomination. The declaration does not directly call for Presbyterians to withhold money from the denomination, but it does suggest that sessions consider designating gifts only to specific ministries that are faithful to Biblical standards.
The task force’s report – first made public by The Layman Online after William “Bill” Taber III sent out an e-mail announcing the committee’s decision – prompted a storm of criticism. More than three dozen readers had responded with letters defending Williamson. As of mid-morning today, only one writer supported the task force.
In her interview with the denomination’s reporter, Atkinson, who had asked The Layman Online not to report the task force’s recommendation, expressed her own sense of regret that the issue had become public. (She is a minister-member of the presbytery, which has sent an overture to the General Assembly seeking to impose a gag-rule on Presbyterians involved in church court cases until after the cases are resolved.)
“Atkinson, who said she is scheduled to rotate off the COM soon, added ruefully, ‘I wish we had delayed this for one more month,'” according to the Presbyterian News Service.
The denomination’s news service reported that “Atkinson also said that the task force has not proposed to ‘strip Williamson of his ordination,’ despite a headline to that effect over a story in The Layman.”
Section G-11.0406 of the Book of Order says, “If at the end of three years the minister has not been restored to active membership or membership-at-large, the presbytery shall delete that person’s name from the appropriate roll of presbytery and may give that person a certificate of membership to a particular church.”
Meanwhile, two renewal leaders – Brad Long of Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International and Jim Berkley of Presbyterians For Renewal – issued statements strongly supporting Williamson.
“To proceed with this course of action of not validating the call of Parker will have disastrous consequences for the peace and unity of the PCUSA and its continued usefulness in the Kingdom of God,” Long said. “Not to validate this great churchman, tireless advocate of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and courageous defender of Biblical truth will, I believe, cause such a firestorm that the already fractured edifice of the PCUSA will be torn asunder.”
“There is no way on God’s green earth that the validated ministry of Parker Williamson should not be revalidated by the Presbytery of Western North Carolina,” wrote Berkley in his column titled “The Berkley Blog.” “Williamson’s ministry is Christian, Reformed, Presbyterian, and of service to the PCUSA. He at times serves as Nathan to the denominational David, telling us things we must know if we are to be self-aware and to repent and reform ourselves. As stressful as it may be at times to bear his words, we can be the better for hearing them.”
“One does not have to agree with Williamson every step of the way,” Berkley added. “I, for one, don’t always. But total agreement is not the criterion for validating ministry. Williamson has every right to voice his opinions – even unpopular ones – because they fall clearly within the bounds of orthodox theology and constitutional rights and practice.”