Two staffers gone in wake of Hezbollah meeting
GAC deputy executive Lueckert, ACSWP coordinator
Sulyok are out
by Alexa Smith,
Presbyterian News
Service
We've
received a comment responding to this report.
LOUISVILLE --
November 11, 2004 -- [posted here 11-15-04] Two key
Presbyterian Church (USA) staff members were apparently fired early this
morning by General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Director John Detterick
-- with no clear public explanation for their departures.
According to a memo released this morning, Kathy Lueckert,
the deputy executive associate director of the GAC, the governing body of
the church's mission program agency, and the Rev. Peter Sulyok, coordinator
of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), are no longer
employed by the GAC.
Leuckert has served the denomination for five years,
Sulyok for nearly twelve.
Lueckert supervised Sulyok and both were members of an
ACSWP fact-finding delegation to the Middle East last month that included a
televised meeting with Hezbollah, an organization that is on the U.S.
government's watch list of terrorist groups.
The meeting and its widespread airing on Arabic television
drew immediate protest from Jewish groups and from some within the PC(USA).
In a memo released to GAC staff, Detterick implied that
legal reasons prevent disclosing why the two staffers are no longer employed
by the PC(USA). He said that he intends to begin searching for an interim
deputy executive director before the year's end. Staff under Luekert's
supervision will temporarily report to Detterick.
Oversight of ASCWP has been delegated to the Rev. Curtis
Kearns, the director of the PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division.
Detterick's other published comments were succinct:
"It is with sadness that I tell you that Kathy Lueckert's
tenure as deputy executive director has come to an end today. Kathy has made
contributions to the work of the GAC and for that I will always be very
grateful … I am also sorry to tell you that Peter Sulyok is leaving the GAC.
Peter, too, has contributed much, especially to the work of ACSWP."
He concluded, "I know these decisions raise many questions
for staff, but please realize that all staff have the right to
confidentiality regarding their employment. Therefore, this is all I can
say. I am keeping Kathy and Peter in my prayers and hope you will also."
Detterick told the Presbyterian New Service that
it is not appropriate to comment further on personnel matters.
The Oct. 14 meeting in southern Lebanon between the ACSWP-led
delegation and Hezbollah leaders was immediately declared "misguided" by top
leadership here and comments made by Ron Stone, a Pittsburgh elder and
member of the delegation, were described as "reprehensible" by Dettrick and
others in a post-meeting letter to Jewish organizations pleading with them
to remain in dialogue with the PC(USA).
Read the text of the
letter, and a report on the visit to Hezbollah.
Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and Rick Ufford-Chase,
the moderator of the 216th General Assembly, also signed the
letter.
The PC(USA) has just begun dialogue with major Jewish
organizations who want the denomination to overturn the 216th
General Assembly's decision to selectively divest itself of stock held in
multinational corporations who profit from the Israeli occupation of
Palestine unless those companies change their business practices.
Stone's remarks came after the group toured the Khiam
Detention Center, a former Israeli prison and torture site in southern
Lebanon, which is now a Hezbollah-run museum and memorial.
In a joint press conference, Stone thanked Hezbollah for
"goodwill" it had expressed toward the American people and he added, "As an
elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience,
relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than
dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders."
News of the meeting and Stone's comments drew immediate
condemnation from Jewish groups.
As Detterick's top deputy, Lueckert carried oversight
responsibility for several major GAC operations, including communication,
mission funding, human resources, social policy development, women's and
racial ethnic concerns, and its legal and research arms.
Prior to working for the PC(USA), Lueckert spent 15 years
in local government. Her family tree includes Presbyterian ministers
reaching back 10 generations.
A clergyman, Sulyok has headed the PC(USA)'s social policy
development since February, 1993. He graduated from Princeton Theological
Seminary in 1980 and did post-graduate work there.
He was a pastor for seven years in Binghamton, NY, and did
interim work in New Jersey while he studied at Princeton.
