Hollywood congregation votes to accept ministers’ resignations
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, December 12, 2005
The congregation of First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood honored the requests of its top two ministers Sunday and voted to accept their resignations after months in bitterness and an estimated 40 percent reduction in worship attendance.
Both Dr. Alan Meenan and Dr. David Manock asked the congregation to vote to dissolve their calls to what has long been considered one of the most prestigious evangelical pulpits in the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA).
Even though they technically remained on staff for seven months as part of an Administrative Commission’s order that they go on paid leave, Meenan and Manock were prohibited from appearing at the church or from contacting officers or the church staff.
Many of their supporters – who were the overwhelming majority of the church when the effort to oust them began after a financial shortfall in 2004 – considered voting against the session’s proposal for dissolution of their call.
But Meenan told the congregation, “I want to encourage you to acquiesce to my desire to vote in favor of the dissolution. We have all been through a lot and we have grown weary in the struggle. While it is natural to point fingers, express disappointment and attribute blame to a variety of sources, today would be more profitably spent in acknowledging that while things are what they are within the church, God sits as king over life’s floods and, flawed as we all are, there is much work to be accomplished: Beyond our doors millions of people need to be reached with the good news of the Savior.”
He acknowledged that “mistakes were certainly made in the over-expenditure of money last year and, as ‘captain of the ship,’ I accept ultimate responsibility.” But he added that “all along I have wanted you to know that I have not been guilty of any moral, ethical or theological wrongdoing and, as such, the gospel has not been compromised in any way. The session has graciously consented to making that clear to you as well. That has always been important to me.”
After the ministers asked that their calls be ended, more than 90 percent of the congregation voted for dissolution. About 400 people – out of a membership of more than 2,700 at the end of 2004 – attended the congregational meeting.
On May 4, 2005, Meenan, the senior minister of the congregation, and Manock, his top associate minister, were ordered to go on paid administrative leave after the Presbytery of the Pacific reviewed complaints against them and appointed an administrative commission to assume original jurisdiction.
The meeting, which began on May 3, had already adjourned when the newly appointed commission members presented a letter to the two ministers after midnight ordering them to clear out their offices within 12 hours and not to have further contact with the congregation’s members or staff. That letter had been written before the presbytery voted to name the commission. At that same meeting, the presbytery rejected a motion that would have required the two ministers to step aside.
There was a brief reprieve after the supporters of Meenan and Manock gathered sufficient signatures on a petition to reinstate the two pastors and they made appearances at services on June 26. But presbytery officials ruled the petition invalid and the ministers’ return was limited to that one Sunday.
For the record, the session, under the urging of the Administrative Commission, is the body that has asked the congregation to vote for the dissolution of the pastors’ calls. But since the Administrative Commission was placed in control of the church’s operations, six elders, including two session clerks, resigned because of their opposition to the commission’s actions.
Most of those who resigned argued that the commission had failed to seek reconciliation between the pastors and those who had objected to their ministry.
Initially, about 30 to 40 members of the congregation made complaints to the presbytery. But that number increased as others expressed dissatisfaction with their ministry styles and the financial problems.
When Hollywood’s troubles were aired at the presbytery meeting in May, the financial shortfall during 2004 reportedly was $700,000. A later analysis of the situation, which was included in a recent bulletin insert, says the 2004 deficit was actually $1,030,353. Through October of this year, the shortage was $804,965.