Letter to Detterick

Barbara Kellam-Scott, the Moderator of Semper Reformanda, has sent an open letter to Mr. John Detterick, Executive Director of the General Assembly Council, as the GAC meeting continues in Louisville.

She asks for prayer for Mr. Detterick, Peter Pizor, and the rest of the GAC during the remainder of their meeting.

Semper Reformanda
(Always Being Reformed)
An independent organization of Presbyterians

February 23, 2001

An open letter to John Detterick
Executive Director of the General Assembly Council
Presbyterian Church (USA)

Dear John:

I'm tardy in thanking you for your gracious letter of November 29, responding to one I and eight other leaders of Semper Reformanda and the Witherspoon Society had sent you earlier that month. I do want to respond as the GAC takes up the issue of the dissatisfaction on the parts of some Presbyterians with Dirk Ficca's remarks to the Peacemaking Conference last summer. First and foremost, please know that our prayers are with you and the GAC as you attempt to discern God's will and act in the interests of the whole church. It is not right that you should be so pressured to act outside the bounds of your authority and so hounded by special-interest groups.

Second, I want to thank you in particular for your kind offer to meet and talk with us about our concerns. We have not had anyone coming through Louisville at a time that might have been convenient, but we didn't press too hard either. That was because we really do not expect you to be directly responsive to us as special-interest groups any more than you are to the groups that have created this tempest. We would rather you direct your energies to the church at large and lead the whole church in following the one God who calls us to be united in our diversity.

We would also much rather that you and the GAC allow this controversy to be resolved within the established processes and structures of our church. We have heard about the letters that have been sent by several sessions and I believe one presbytery, alleging a delinquency on the part of staff and the GAC in not taking action already. I would repeat, as we urged you in November, not to be intimidated into preempting the due process that our polity promises to each of us. The office of the Stated Clerk is the entity equipped - and constitutionally empowered - to investigate and evaluate a properly filed complaint. Only through that office and the Permanent Judicial Commission can a delinquency be determined and cured. We should not be afraid of our judicial process. To flood your office with informal complaints that cannot be properly answered from your office is an abuse of our polity and an affront to every Presbyterian.

The same goes for the "petition" that we understand the Presbyterian Lay Committee has brought to you to lay before the GAC. No matter how many individuals may have signed the document, there is no Presbyterian mechanism by which you can respond to it. There isn't even an entry in the index to the Book of Order for petitions. I had hoped to read the petition, especially to learn what action it asks you to take, but have not found it posted by the PLC or others on the Web. I would guess a more orderly course of action, if not judicial, would be for a presbytery to bring an overture to the General Assembly. Without some form of complaint that is at least defined by our polity, I don't see how you can be expected to respond.

Another Presbyterian in one of my favorite Ecunet meetings recently noted that our processes move slowly. That can be frustrating, especially to people who are upset about a particular event. But I celebrate our habits of deliberation and discernment. They help to protect us from being "blown about by every wind of doctrine," or polity, as the writer of the epistle cautioned our Ephesian forerunners in both faith and controversy. Please do not feel or allow the GAC to feel that you stand alone between two competing stressors. Though I have written this letter alone, I am confident that my cosigners from before would join me in vowing that we prefer to stand with you and the GAC, that we will be in prayer with you on Saturday as you meet, and that we encourage you, above all, to take no hasty action for the sake of acting,. Rather, we would encourage you to allow the church as the whole Body of Christ to do its work together, in the structures we have created for taking action. We will be happy for the opportunities afforded by those structures to have our own say on what Dirk Ficca said and how Presbyterian events should be planned and run. Those opportunities, which each of us shares with every other Presbyterian, are all we ask.

Yours in the hope of Shalom,

Barbara Kellam-Scott
Moderator, SR(ABR)