Minister who was ‘coerced’ may get due-process hearing
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, December 4, 2001
A minister who says he was coerced in 1999 into resigning as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore may get his day in court – a chance to challenge unsubstantiated accusations against him.
The Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly has ruled that the Mid-Atlantic Synod court erred in its ruling upholding the action of the Presbytery of Baltimore.
Through an administrative commission, a presbytery-appointed body that supplants the local session, the Baltimore Presbytery pressured Ernest Smart to resign as pastor of Second Presbyterian after he had served there 18 years.
In a decision made public Dec. 4, the General Assembly commission said Smart should have been given an opportunity to “present testimonial as well as well as documentary evidence” when his case went before the synod’s Permanent Judicial Commission. The synod ruled that Smart did not state a cause for relief.
Job reconsideration not an issue
The General Assembly commission did not open the door for reconsideration of Smart’s return to Second Presbyterian. It declared that a congregational vote supporting Smart “does not have controlling authority over the presbytery’s dissolution of the pastoral relationship.”
The minister’s resignation came at the end of a tumultuous six months during which Smart was embroiled in a controversy over a plan to name him and a woman as co-pastors of the congregation.
From the outset, the co-pastors had disagreements, leading to the Baltimore Presbytery’s appointment in March 1999 of an administrative commission to replace the Second Presbyterian session as the governing body of the congregation.
Votes supported minister
During the six months from March to August 1999, there were rogue meetings of the session – without having a moderator present as required – and divided loyalties within the congregation. In the end, though, both the session and the congregation voted overwhelmingly that they wanted Smart to remain as pastor of the 1,000-member congregation.
But the presbytery’s administrative commission, and later the full presbytery, wanted him out.
Smart contends that he was faced with a Hopkins’ choice – resign or be tainted with allegations that were compiled by the presbytery’s administrative commission and mailed to members of his congregation even before he was confronted with the options of resigning or being forced out of the pulpit.
Allegations disseminated
In testimony before the General Assembly’s Permanent Judicial Commission during its meeting in Atlanta on Nov. 30, Smart says that on August 9, 1999, he met with the presbytery’s administrative commission. He said he was faced with unsubstantiated accusations and urged to resign.
During that two-hour meeting, Smart said, “I was accused of being an unfaithful minister of the Word and sacrament. They told me that they had mailed [the accusations] to the presbytery and the congregation. I said, ‘What?'”
Smart testified that he told the administrative commission that “I had had neither the reason nor desire to resign. But by 9:30 p.m., I could endure it no longer. I felt battered.”
If he resigned, he was told, there would be no further mention of the reasons for his departure – even though the unsubstantiated charges had been mailed to the congregation.
Facts not disputed
Samuel Jett Jr., the counsel for the presbytery, did not dispute the facts as presented by Smart and his counsel, Ross S. Bash, who, like Smart, is both a Presbyterian minister and a lawyer.
Simply, Jett argued, the fact that Smart resigned made it irrelevant that he might have been coerced into doing something he later regretted. Jett said due process – which the Presbyterian constitution requires in disciplinary cases – became irrelevant once Smart signed a letter of resignation.
But Bash, who described the confrontation between the administrative commission and Smart as a “bloodbath and a brawl,” said the question is whether the resignation was voluntary.
In its ruling upholding the action of the presbytery, the synod’s Permanent Judicial Commission offered no evidence disputing Smart’s claims or supporting its decision that Smart’s resignation settled the matter, Bash said.
Record incomplete
“The synod doesn’t have the whole record,” he said. He cited a document in the administrative commission’s record of the case that referred to the minutes about a meeting of the Second Presbyterian session. In fact, Bash contended, and Jett did not deny, there were no minutes of that session meeting – which was one of the occasions when the session met without a moderator.
“I maintain that I have evidence that that resignation wasn’t voluntary,” Bash said. “He [Smart] had no opportunity to respond to the commission’s report.”
“His career was on trial at that meeting. After 30-plus years as a Presbyterian minister, he was given five-days’ notice. Presbyteries – all governing bodies – should set out to protect their members’ rights.”
Jett’s argument was a repetition of a single point: By resigning, Smart forfeited his right to claim that due process was denied. Therefore, Jett said, he is not entitled to a hearing.
Church still seeking pastor
Smart is not asking for more severance or reinstatement as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, which, after three years, still has not named a committee to begin the search for a new minister.
Currently serving as interim pastor of a Lutheran congregation, Smart does want the air cleared – a hearing in which he would be allowed to confront any who might step forth publicly and accuse him of not fulfilling his ordination vows.