Ousted senior minister in Hollywood renounces jurisdiction of PCUSA
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, March 31, 2006
The former senior minister of Hollywood Presbyterian Church – who, with his top associate minister, was forced to resign their posts by the Presbytery of the Pacific – has renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has “requested to be removed from membership and ordained office in the church.”
Dr. Alan Meenan detailed his actions in an e-mail to friends and supporters of his new ministry, The Word Is Out.
On March 8, the presbytery decided to begin disciplinary action that could lead to stripping Meenan and his top associate, Dr. David Manock, of their ordination as ministers of Word and Sacrament.
On Dec. 12, after months of controversy and a major split in the congregation – including the resignations of eight elders who supported Meenan and Manock – the congregation voted in favor of their requests to resign.
In his recent e-mail, Meenan writes that, “I want to inform you that I have made the tough decision to leave the PCUSA and start a new congregation in Los Angeles. We are getting some significant newspaper coverage and people are very excited to promote the new venture. I am writing to give you an update and solicit your prayers. The church will be a “base camp” for the launch of The Word Is Out International in the coming months as we will begin the process of teaching Bible study courses initially in India and Africa and setting up indigenous training centers.”
“This coming Sunday we will be unfurling the banner of our new church with its new name: CHURCH for the NATIONS. The service will include an ordination and commissioning service as well.The following is an excerpt from a communication I sent today to attendees of the new congregation:
“Last week I took the step of renouncing the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and requested to be removed from membership and ordained office in the church. I confess it was a bittersweet experience. The PCUSA has been a large piece of my life for more than three decades. I will continue to have many wonderful friends in that denomination. But as a denomination, the PCUSA is headed for disaster and to no longer be part of it provides me with a genuine sense of relief and freedom that I find exhilarating. That is the “sweet” component in the “bittersweet” feeling I experience.
“I am enclosing two attachments of the last two communications I had with the Presbytery of the Pacific (including my letter of renunciation). You may (or may not) have some interest in reading them. I enclose them simply to acquaint you with the honest-to-goodness rationale of what went into my decision to leave the PCUSA. I suspect others may want to put a different spin on my departure, so I want you to know the truth…. That the world might know.”