Court committee: Complaint against clerk, moderator fails to state a claim for relief
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 7, 2003
The executive committee of the denomination’s highest court has issued a preliminary order declaring that a remedial complaint against the stated clerk and moderator “does not state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”
That’s court language for dismissal, but the executive committee doesn’t have the final word. The full Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly must concur before the case against Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel can be dismissed.
A complaint by the session of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Canton, Ohio, accuses Kirkpatrick and Abu-Akel of conspiring to invalidate a petition that required them to call the 214th General Assembly back into session to deal with constitutional issues.
During its meeting in Kansas City on Feb. 26-28, the commission will decide 1) whether to accept the executive committee’s preliminary order or 2) to conduct a hearing before issuing its own order.
“If the parties are not in agreement with this Order,” the executive committee said, “there will be a hearing on questions arising under D-2.0200 regarding the nature of the case and on whether this Commission has jurisdiction.” D-2.0200 begins the Book of Discipline of the Book of Order.
The complainants say they do not agree with the interim order and that they are prepared to argue their case.
Although the executive committee says Westminster failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, the complaint did call for relief by requesting that the court “issue an order directing the appropriate respondents to immediately call the 214th General Assembly into special session not more than 60 days from January 14, 2003.”
The executive committee’s preliminary order did not say why that request did not constitute a claim for relief.
In the event that the full court orders a hearing, the executive committee said parties to the case “are ordered to be prepared to present their arguments and briefs.”
The committee also said the hearing would cover “additional information,” including: “the propriety and appropriateness of the procedures used by the Office of the General Assembly to determine the legitimacy of the petition filed on or about January 14, 2003, requesting the calling of a special session of the 214th General Assembly (2002) …”
Westminster’s complaint says the clerk and moderator “failed to fulfill the requirements of the Book of Order to call the 214th General Assembly into special session, and have otherwise conspired together and acted contrary to the polity of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to prevent the 214th General Assembly from being recalled into special session.”