PCUSA unit may void gadfly's credentials

Christian Century, Dec 27, 2003

A Presbyterian committee in North Carolina has recommended invalidating the ministerial credentials of a sharp-tongued internal critic of the mainline denomination: Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the conservative Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor of its publication.

Upon learning about the decision, Williamson, told the on-line version of the Layman: "Presbyterians who care more about institutional preservation than constitutional integrity have won a short-term skirmish in a battle that is wider than they can imagine."

The action was taken December 9 by the Committee on Ministry of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, which voted to approve a task force report that the church withdraw validation of Williamson's ministry. If the presbytery meeting January 31 in Asheville concurs with the committee, he will be placed on inactive status and will lose speaking and voting privileges at presbytery meetings.

"It isn't Parker," Mary V. Atkinson, the chair of the task force that recommended the action, told the Presbyterian News Service. "It is the ministry in which he is engaged."

What "tipped the scales" for the task force, she said, was the "Declaration of Conscience" in which the Lay Committee called on sessions to "prayerfully consider" withholding per-capita and mission funds from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the grounds that its leaders have not been faithful to biblical standards. Though the Lay Committee stops short of directly urging congregations to withhold payments, she said, "We felt that they were definitely trying to encourage churches to withhold funds."

Presbytery Executive William "Bill" Taber said the 18-member COM, meeting for 90 minutes, voted by an overwhelming margin "not to validate the ministry of the CEO of the Presbyterian Lay Committee." If his ministry were not restored to active status within three years, Williamson would lose his ordination.

A member of the presbytery since 1971, Williamson stowed as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lenoir, North Carolina, before his hiring by the Presbyterian Lay Committee in 1989.

Church courts have ruled, and several General Assemblies have confirmed, that riding "sessions" of local churches have the right to determine how their offerings are spent, and cannot be compelled to make per-capita payments. However, some church officials, including Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the General Assembly, have said that Presbyterian officers who advocate withholding funds from the denomination are in danger of violating their ordination vows.