Evangelical pastor notified that he has been ‘kicked out’
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 28, 2005
The Rev. Ernest Smart, an evangelical pastor in Baltimore, has been officially notified that, in his own words, he has been “kicked out of” the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Ernest SmartHe said he was informed of his status in a letter from Ed Martin, chairman of the Committee on Ministry of the Presbytery of Donegal. The letter was addressed to “Mr. Ernest Smart.” Martin told Smart that he had “renounced the jurisdiction” of the denomination because he persisted in serving as the pastor of an independent group in Baltimore.
“I renounced nothing,” Smart told The Layman Online. “I have always been a Presbyterian and I love being a Presbyterian.”
Smart hopes to make a final stab at keeping his status as honorably retired by the Presbytery of Donegal. He said he is asking the presbytery to allow him to state his case before the presbytery votes Nov. 15 on whether to accept the recommendation of Donegal’s Committee on Ministry.
Smart received the letter from Martin on Oct. 27, 10 days after the Committee on Ministry set an Oct. 17 deadline for him to cease his work with St. Andrew’s Christian Community in Baltimore because of objections from the Presbytery of Baltimore.
Smart previously was a member of the Presbytery of Baltimore, where he served as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church. But the presbytery, one of the most liberal in the denomination, forced him to resign in 2000. Second Presbyterian has lost nearly half its members since Smart was removed from the pulpit. A few of those former members began attending St. Andrew’s, but they had left Second long before Smart began working with the independent congregation.
Smart filed a complaint against the Presbytery of Baltimore, but lost his cases in the presbytery and synod. Smart appealed to General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, which ruled in his favor. It said the presbytery denied him due process and fundamental fairness and ordered a new trial in the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic.
Noting that he had already spent $31,000 on his defense and was weary of battling the presbytery, Smart decided not to press the issue and terminated his action. He also applied for membership in the more conservative Presbytery of Donegal and served as the interim minister for two congregations. Presbytery officials said he was an outstanding minister.
But Smart also wearied of travel and long absences from his home in Baltimore, where he was involved in a number of community endeavors, including the St. Andrew’s Society, a Scottish social group. Some member of the society asked Smart, a native of Scotland, to conduct weekly services. He agreed to do so, without informing either the Presbytery of Donegal in Pennsylvania or the Presbytery of Baltimore.
But leaders of the Presbytery of Baltimore learned about Smart’s work with St. Andrew’s and wrote a letter to Donegal saying he was violating the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The constitution does require a minister who works outside the bounds of his presbytery to gain the approval of both presbyteries for that ministry.
- The presbytery may grant a minister permission to engage in work which is outside its geographic bounds or which is not under its jurisdiction, but no presbytery shall permit a minister to engage in work which is within the geographic bounds of another presbytery and which is properly within the responsibility of another presbytery without consent of that presbytery. Such permission and consent shall be reviewed and renewed annually. Book of Order, G-11.0104(a)
But the Book of Order does not require that the minister’s presbytery determine that a minister who is not in compliance with that provision be stripped of his ordination.
- When a church officer, after consultation and notice, persists in a work disapproved by the governing body having jurisdiction, the governing body may presume that the officer has renounced the jurisdiction of this church. G-6.0502.
Smart contends that “may presume” does not mean that the presbytery “shall” or “must” remove him from its membership roles. Furthermore, he says the Presbytery of Baltimore shows its hypocrisy by recognizing as a validated minister Don Stroud, a homosexual activist. Baltimore also decided that it would not allow a church trial on a complaint that Stroud had renounced the jurisdiction of the denomination by violating his ordination vows.
Stroud, who is employed by That All May Freely Serve, a group that promotes homosexual relations and same-sex marriages, told the presbytery that he could not abide by the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” clause that prohibits the ordination of church officers who are practicing homosexuals. To comply with church law, he told the presbytery, “can come only at the price of denying my faith in God’s grace in Jesus Christ. My conscience will not allow me to do such a thing.”
After he won his case, Smart was blackballed from any ministry assignments by the Presbytery of Baltimore, which shares office space with That All May Freely Serve.
The Presbytery of Baltimore gave evidence of its continuing antagonism toward Smart in a letter to Donegal asking it to order Smart to stop serving St. Andrew’s.
Baltimore’s Stated Clerk Charles Forbes, a financial supporter of That All May Freely Serve, complained that Smart’s ministry at St. Andrew’s was “a violation [of] Presbyterian guidelines and custom” and that Smart had “never communicated any form of request for permission from this Presbytery to undertake this ministry.” Furthermore, if Smart had asked the presbytery for permission, Forbes declared, he “would not receive such permission …”