Case against Florida church called 'frontal attack' on CCM
The Layman Online; Tuesday, February 26, 2002
By John H. Adams
ATLANTA -- "If you don't see this as a direct frontal attack on the Confessing Church Movement, you're missing the point," declared Howard Edington, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Fla.
Speaking at an open forum during the National Celebration of the Confessing Church Movement on Feb. 26, Edington was responding to an order issued by the church court of the Presbytery of Central Florida.
The presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission ordered the session of First Presbyterian Church in Sebastian, Fla., to rescind its Confessing Church resolution in its entirety.
Pastor issues a dare
"I'm asking my session tomorrow night to formally align with the Sebastian church and to dare the judicial commission to come after First Presbyterian Church," Edington said.
First Presbyterian in Orlando, with more than 5,500 members, is one of the largest congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Its session was the second in the denomination to adopt a Confessing Church resolution.
Edington also told participants at the Celebration that he will recommend that First Presbyterian withhold undesignated per-capita support for the work of the presbytery.
Hundreds attend forum
The Celebration learned earlier in the day about the order in the Sebastian case, which became the focus of a hastily called lunch-time plenary forum attended by several hundred people. The reaction ranged from anger to, in some cases, a call for a more moderately worded Confessing Church confession.
The issues discussed during the Celebration forum focused on the two parts of the Sebastian resolution.
The first part contains the session's three confessional statements: that Jesus Christ alone is Lord, that Scripture is the infallible rule of faith and life and that God's standards of holiness are still relevant. The second part of the resolution went on to "urge sessions and presbyteries to affirm these confessions and to declare that they will not ordain, install or employ in ministry any person who will not affirm them."
Bob Davis, a lawyer and a Presbyterian minister, tried to provide some understanding of how the presbytery court viewed the Sebastian resolution. He suggested that the court might not have ordered the session to recant its confession if the session had not included the "subscription clause" about ordaining officers or employing people in ministry.
Bible statement targeted
But, in an earlier ruling on the Sebastian case, the presbytery court targeted one of the confessional statements in the first part of the resolution. It requested that the Sebastian session revise its affirmation that "Holy Scripture is the Word of the triune God, and the Church's only infallible rule of faith and life" and use instead a theologically blander Book of Order statement about the authority of Scripture.
Edington's congregation has been involved in the Sebastian case through Christy Wilson III, a member of its session and an Orlando lawyer. Upon hearing about the presbytery court's initial request last October, Edington told the participants at the Celebration that, "We immediately asked Christy Wilson if he would take the case. He has been dealt with in a most unfair manner. He just received a massive pack of briefs, etc., on Feb. 4 and asked for time to respond properly." The presbytery court denied that request."
Attempt to oust pastor
Edington also said there were side issues, including attempts in the presbytery to remove the Rev. Eleanor Lea, an evangelical, from the pastorate of the Sebastian church.
Furthermore, he criticized the presbytery court for not allowing a stay of enforcement that would delay the implementation of its order that the Sebastian session publish its recantation in its church newsletter while the appeal process continues.
Another speaker at the forum was Ken Burgess, a member of the Sebastian session. "Unless something has dramatically changed," he said, "we're in this to stay."
