Thursday, June 22, 2023

Gordon Clark: COMPLAINT AGAINST MIDWESTERN PRESBYTERY (RPCES Minutes)

1973. COMPLAINT AGAINST MIDWESTERN PRESBYTERY. Minutes of the 152nd General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod. Oct. 17. Pgs. 9-10

COMPLAINT AGAINST MIDWESTERN PRESBYTERY

The General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.

Fathers and Brethren: This communication is a complaint against an action of the Midwestern Presbytery taken on October 12, 1973, and an appeal to Synod to reverse the action.

In 1972 Midwestern Presbytery illegally voted to waive a provision of the Form of Government, and on this illegal action proceeded to ordain a certain licentiate. On an appeal to Synod, Synod approved this action by adopting the Report of the Presbytery Records Committee, signed by the Rev. Wilbur Siddons. Synod thus declared that Midwestern Presbytery had not been improper in altering the ordination requirements, since it had waived the provisions of the Form of Government by proper vote (Minutes of the 150th General Synod, p. 110). The next year Synod rescinded its approval of Presbytery's minutes (Minutes of the 151st General Synod, pp. 104-105).

On October 12, 1973 the Moderator of Midwestern Presbytery ruled that "Mr. Middelmann was legally and properly ordained," and that he is therefore a member of Presbytery. The Presbytery sustained this ruling.

This ruling of the Moderator is, in the judgment of the undersigned, a patently false statement. The undersigned therefore appeals to Synod to reverse this action for the following reasons:

(1) Presbytery's action in waiving the provisions for ordination in the Form of Government was admittedly illegal. The actual service of ordination, which depended on the illegal action, was therefore itself illegal. This means that the Moderator's ruling is a statement contrary to fact. Presbytery's sustaining vote does not make it true.

(2) Neither those who used this illegal procedure nor the individual who was ordained in consequence of it should profit by it. Otherwise further violations are encouraged, since the violators can hope that their illegal actions can be made legal and effective by a moderator's sustained ruling. This results in the complete destruction of Presbyterian government.

Respectfully submitted,

Gordon H. Clark

Oct. 17, 1973

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