COMMUNICATION NO. 2-Appeal From Actions of Midwestern Presbytery
Fathers and Brethren,
This document is an appeal, by Mr. and Mrs. William R. Hawley, to Synod, from the actions of the Midwestern Presbytery, taken on January 14, 1975, in rejecting the recommendations of its Judicial Committee and in refusing to 10 allow Mr. and Mrs. Hawley to present their case before a Judicial Commission.
Presbyterian law guarantees to any communicant member who thinks he is aggrieved or treated unjustly or has been the victim of illegal actions, the right to bring his case before an impartial and properly constituted judicial commission.
Not only did the Midwestern Presbytery deny the Hawleys this right; they went further and pronounced a verdict without hearing the evidence and without constituting a judicial commission and without permitting the Hawleys to appear.
Among the points involved are these: (1) The Judicial Committee recommended that the Presbytery should consider the Hawley's allegations that the membership of the First Bible Presbyterian Church ofIndianapolis had been reduced to a small fraction of its previous size by the disastrous policies of its present administration. Presbytery defeated this recommendation.
(2) The Judicial Committee recommended that the Pastoral Relations Committee undertake some action to alleviate the difficulties. The Presbytery also rejected this conciliatory recommendation.
(3) The Judicial Committee recommended that the Presbytery ask both the Hawleys and the Session to postpone all action for a period of time. This was also in the interests of conciliation; but the Presbytery refused.
(4) Then the Presbytery, without any judicial authority or procedure, pronounced the verdict that the Hawleys had no cause of action. The Presbytery pronounced this verdict without hearing the evidence and without permitting the Hawleys to appear.
Church history furnishes a parallel to this procedure. When charges of heresy were brought against the Auburn Affirmationists, the Philadelphia Presbytery, in spite of the fact that the Book of Discipline stated that upon the fIling of charges "the Presbytery shall transmit them" to a Judicial Commission, violated the Discipline and refused to consider the charges.
This is precisely the violation of Presbyterian rights on account of which the Hawleys hereby appeal to Synod.
Ordinarily the appellants would request Synod to order Presbytery to to hear this case. But since. the Presbytery showed itself prejudiced in pronouncing a verdict without conducting a hearing, the Hawleys request the Synod to constitute an impartial Judicial Commission of its own and try the case in Indianapolis at a convenient time during the summer of 1975.
Further evidence of prejudice against the Hawleys is clear in Presbytery's action to form a committee to assist the Session in getting rid of the Hawleys. It will be noted that the Committee is not instructed to assist the Hawleys.
In addition to such prejudice and denial of the Presbyterian rights of communicant members, these actions are a sad affront to people who were faithful members for twenty years and who worked faithfully to build up the membership (now decimated) and to move the meeting place of the congregation from a house to the present commodious church building. Something must be wrong when a congregation is reduced by approximately two thirds, when all but one of the original elders have been forced out, and when now these communicant members are being cast out. It is even more sad when 11 a Presbytery votes to instruct a session how to get rid of members rather than how to retain them.
Gordon H. Clark
Counsel for Mr. and Mrs.
William R. Hawley
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