The following resolution, read by Clark, was one which was unanimously adopted by the Philadelphia Presbytery of which he was a member.
"Inasmuch as it has been reported in
the daily press that the body known as
the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the
body known as the Presbytenan Church
in the U.S.A. has purported to 'depose,' or otherwise discipline ministers who are
members of this Presbytery and of the
Presbyterian Church of America, a sovereign ecclesiastical body; Be it resolved as follows;
"(1) That this Presbytery of Philadelphia of the Presbyterian Church of
America calls the attention of the public,
all ecclesiastical bodies and all the civil
authorities who may have a proper interest in this matter, to the resolution
adopted by the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church of America concerning this subject: 'The First General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of
America, having had brought before it
questions concerning the status of certain persons under its jurisdiction, and
being cognizant of the facts in these
cases, does authoritatively declare and
adjudicate as follows: 1. The final judgments of the 148th General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
in Judicial Cases 1-5 before that body,
were, in our judgment, contrary to the
Bible, to the Protestant genius of the
Reformed Churches, and in violation of
the Constitution of the' Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. These judgments
amounted to a substitution of the word
of man for the Word of God. Since any
action of any judicatory which is contrary to the Word of God cannot be held
to be the lawful act of a church which
acknowledges the Bible as its primary
standard, we believe the action in these
cases to have been void ab initio, and to
have been merely a pretended adjudication. 2. Concerning those ministers, parties in the cases cited above, who are
now under the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church of America, this General
Assembly hereby formally declares them
to be ministers of the Gospel in this
church in good and regular standing with
all the rights, privileges, and duties pertaining to lawfully ordained ministers.
3. Since certain ministers now under our jurisdiction did, on June 8, 1936, withdraw from the body claiming and bearing
the title of the Presbyterian Church in
the U.S.A., and did send notice thereof
to the presbyteries of that body in which
they had until then been members, be it
declared and adjudged by this General
Assembly (a) That it is the inalienable
right of any minister, elder, deacon, or
layman to withdraw from any body claiming to be a branch of the visible church
of Christ, such withdrawal to be immediately effective, if in the judgment of
the person concerned there are sufficient
reasons for such action. To deny this
right is to affirm that a member of an
essentially voluntary religious body' may
be held in it against his will, which would,
we believe, be a denial of the first principles of civil and religious liberty. (b)
That any so-called infliction of ecclesiastical censure made by any body upon
persons who have before the alleged infliction of such censure severed their
connection with the organization in question is only a pretended infliction, null
and void entirely. (c) That any further
action on the part of any of the judicatories claiming the name and rights of
the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
against any minister, elder, deacon, or
member of this church will be deemed an unwarranted, presumptuous, and unlawful interference by one religious body in
the internal affairs of another. Ministers,
elders, deacons, and members of the Presbyterian Church of America are under
the sole and exclusive ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the judicatories of this church.
Ecclesiastical actions concerning them by
the courts of any other religious body are
hereby declared null and void. 4. All censures inflicted by the courts of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. upon any of
the defendants in Judicial Cases 1-5 mentioned above are by the action of this
Assembly as the supreme judicatory of
this church, terminated, lifted, and declared at an end. 5. The provisions of
this action are hereby declared to extend
to all parties concerned who shall be- come ministers or members of the Presbyterian Church of America, thus submitting to its jurisdiction, before the next
General Assembly.'
"(2) That this Presbytery declares
that the following ministers, whom the
body known as the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the body known as the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. has
purported to "depose" are not deposed,
have never been deposed, cannot be deposed by the body mentioned above which
has no jurisdiction over them, and that
they are lawfully-ordained ministers of
the Presbyterian Church of America;
The Rev. H. McAllister Griffiths, the
Rev. E. H. Rian, the Rev. Charles J.
Woodbridge, the Rev. Paul Woolley.
"(3) That this Presbytery declares
that the following ministers are members
of the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the
Presbyterian Church of America, subject
to the jurisdiction of this church alone,
and that any so-called acts of "discipline"
purportedly done against any or all of
them by any other ecclesiastical body
whatsoever are unlawful, null and void:
Dean W. Adair
Carl Ahlfeldt
Philip B. Arcularius
Robert K. Churchill
John P. Clelland
Bruce A. Coie
Calvin K. Cummings
Peter De Ruiter
Everett C. DeVelde
Albert B. Dodd
Franklin S. Dyrness
Frank L. Fiol
W. K. Fleck
David Freeman
A. Culver Gordon
Robert H. Graham
H. McAllister Griffiths
R. Laird Harris
R. Moody Holmes
Bruce F. Hunt
J. Gresham Machen
Allan A. MacRae
George W. Marston
Robert S. Marsden
Thomas H. Mitchell
Edwin H. Rian
Charles G. Sterling
N. B. Stonehouse
John B. Thwing
Kelly G. Tucker
Cornelius Van Til
Peter F. Wall
Henry G. Welbon
Charles E. Wideman
Charles J. Woodbridge
Paul Woolley
V. V. Wortman
"(4) That this Presbytery declares
that the purported acts of dieipline of the
body in question are an unwarranted,
presumptuous and unlawful interference
by one religious body in the internal
affairs of another."
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