Prayer vigil supports church ordered to recant confession
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 22, 2002
ORLANDO – For more than three hours on a steamy April 18 morning, a group ranging from 15 to 20 people read Scripture, prayed, sang and walked around the offices of the Presbytery of Central Florida.
The reason for the vigil was to express solidarity with the session of First Presbyterian Church in Sebastian, Fla., which has been ordered by the presbytery court to recant its resolution aligning with the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA).
“We are outraged, bewildered, beside ourselves to imagine that this church is being persecuted,” prayed the Rev. Robert R. Kopp of Loves Park, Ill., one of the Confessing Church ministers who planned the vigil.
The session of the Sebastian church, a congregation comprised mostly of retirees (average age, 72), has appealed the presbytery court’s decision to the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the South Atlantic.
It has also asked the synod court to issue a stay of enforcement while the case proceeds. A hearing on the request for a stay of enforcement is scheduled on May 9.
The Rev. Howard Eddington, senior pastor of the 5,500-member First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, and several ministers on his staff participated in the vigil.
“The great heresy of our times is that we have become a church of the culture,” said Eddington. “When we have a band of believers who are willing to stand – to say, ‘We believe in Christ. We believe in Scripture. We believe in holy living.’ – we claim the heritage of our faith.”
First Presbyterian in Orlando is the largest of the 1,254 Confessing Churches in the Confessing Church Movement. When the presbytery court’s decision in the Sebastian case was announced in February, during the movement’s national celebration, Eddington said he would ask his session to redirect its per-capita.
He told The Layman that his session has acted on that request – redirecting its 2002 per capita apportionment that would normally go to the General Assembly. That amounts to about $27,500, which must be paid by the Presbytery of Central Florida if it has enough money.
Many Scripture passages read during the vigil cited the chaos in the first century Christian church caused by false teachers and dark spiritual forces.
A prayer by Jonathas Moreira, a native of Brazil and a member of the First Presbyterian staff, expressed the sentiment of the group. “Lord, you know what’s going on in our church. You know that the enemy is trying to destroy it. We ask your blessings upon our presbytery.”
The vigil began at 8 a.m. in the parking lot that is the main entryway to the presbytery’s offices. None of the presbytery employees stopped to observe the vigil, and none came out of their offices to greet the group.
“We have shaded your light with political correctness,” prayed the Rev. L. Rus Howard of Peters Creek Presbyterian Church in Venetia, Pa. “We have shaded your light with cultural fantasies.” He prayed that God would raise up leaders who would say, “‘That’s enough.'”
He also prayed for Norman Blessing, the Sebastian elder who filed the complaint against his fellow session members. “We pray that he, too, says, ‘Let’s stop this foolishness.'”
After praying in the parking lot for a wide range of subjects – the Sebastian case, the presbytery’s employees, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Supreme Court in the aftermath of its ruling that child pornography is free speech – the vigil moved to the front of the building on Magnolia Avenue, a busy thoroughfare.
Stopping twice – at the main entrance to the office building and another entrance, both on Magnolia – the members of the vigil continued their prayers, reading Scripture and singing hymns.
Passersby, including a homeless man carrying his belongings, glanced their way, but only one, a young Hispanic man, stopped. Tim Filston, an associate minister at First Presbyterian, shook the Hispanic man’s hand and talked to him briefly. Under Moreira’s leadership, First Presbyterian has begun a ministry to the growing Hispanic community in Orlando.
Eddington, watching the traffic on the sidewalk and on Magnolia, prayed for God’s grace and mercy for “those who drive by in Mercedes sports cars [a young woman] and those who carry all of their possessions on their back.”
First Presbyterian is a mixture of both. Its membership includes some of Orlando’s movers and shakers. On the morning of the vigil, the Orlando Sentinel anchored a section front with a large color photograph and feature story about Compassion Corner, a First Presbyterian ministry that “provides a daytime gathering place for Orlando’s homeless.”
It was a vigil for souls as well as issues. “Help us stay focused on the first love, the love of Jesus,” prayed Paul Roberts, pastor of Summit Presbyterian Church in Beaver, Pa., which, on March 21, 2001, became the first Confessing Church within the PCUSA.
Eddington prayed for Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the PCUSA – “that he would listen to your voice and take a more active stand to defend our Book of Order and our confessions.”
The vigil ended with a hymn – The Church’s One Foundation – and the Lord’s Prayer.