“The moderator of the Stated Clerk Review/Nominating Committee has informed me that the required documentation that I previously submitted is in order and that I am qualified to be nominated for the office of Stated Clerk of the General Assembly,” said Metherell in a news release e-mailed to the media on Wednesday, March 31.
“I came to this decision after much prayer and discussion with associates across the denomination,” he wrote. “My sense of call to this position grows stronger every day as I look at the state of the church and the problems the new stated clerk will be facing. My sense of call and motives have been affirmed (1) by knowing they are biblical; (2) that they are confirmed by my Christian brothers and sisters and (3), last but not least, by my wife and family.”
Metherell noted that there are already “two other excellent candidates challenging the nomination of the incumbent, Clifton Kirkpatrick. Why then, should I add my name to the field of candidates?”
“As an elder/physician/engineer/businessman, I believe that I can bring a much needed perspective to the race, and to the office if elected. Because of who I am and what I do, I am very much a rational, objective thinker.”
The two other candidates Metherell referred to are Linn “Rus” Howard, pastor of Peters Creek church in Venetia, Pa., and Bob Davis, an Escondido, Calif., pastor and lawyer, who also is executive director of the renewal group, the Presbyterian Forum. Kirkpatrick, who will be the official nominee of the review/nominating committee, is seeking his third four-year term.
Metherell, an elder at 4,000-member St. Andrew’s church in Newport Beach, Calif., is perhaps best known across the denomination for his attempt to bring the 214th General Assembly (2002) back into session to address what he termed a constitutional crisis — pastors and sessions defying the church’s Constitution regarding the ordination of sexually active homosexuals.
On Jan. 14, 2003, Metherell presented Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly, with a list of 57 commissioners who he said had signed postcards or letters asking the Assembly to reconvene to figure out what to do about constitutional defiance.
Following a process of verifying the signatures on the petition, Abu-Akel later ruled that the petition did not have enough signatures and refused to recall the Assembly. The session of Westminster church, Canton, Ohio, then filed a complaint before the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission against Abu-Akel and Kirkpatrick.
The GAPJC, the denomination’s highest court, ruled in March 2003 that Abu-Akel did have the “right and responsibility” to try to verify the signatures of 57 commissioners that were presented to him, to make sure they were valid, and that commissioners did have the right to change their minds about the wisdom of calling the Assembly back right until the time when Abu-Akel actually issued the call for the meeting.
The judicial commission did say, however, that Abu-Akel acted improperly when he sent a letter on Jan. 14 “imploring” the 57 commissioners “in the name of Jesus Christ and for the good of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to reconsider your decision.” At that point, the commission ruled, the moderator was “obligated to cease advocacy of a particular position and act with impartiality” in exercising his constitutional duties. Sending the letter “imploring” the commissioners “had the appearance of seeking to undermine the rights of the commissioners,” the PJC ruled.
The PJC also ruled that Abu-Akel and Kirkpatrick were correct in contending that they’d have to give commissioners a notice of 120 days before reconvening the Assembly, because the business that could be considered required constitutional interpretation. Lawyer Paul Rolf Jensen and Metherell had argued that only a 60-day notice was required.
In listing his service to the church in the press release, Metherell writes, “Contrary to calling the special meeting upon receipt of those petitions as required by the Book of Order, the Stated Clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, working with Associate Stated Clerk, Mark Tammen, succeeded in sabotaging the meeting by getting our moderator to act unconstitutionally by delaying the call and by lobbying the commissioners who had signed the requests to withdraw their names after all the petitions were submitted.”
The 215th General Assembly (2003) did discuss constitutional defiance and voted to send a pastoral letter, which encourages presbyteries and synods to establish procedures to review the work of governing bodies and reminds them they have constitutional tools available, when needed, “to intervene in a pastoral spirit that reflects the trust and love on which the community is based.”
