From: Danny Giffen [mailto:dgiffen@covpres.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 3:59 PM
To: Danny Giffen
Subject: Session Communication to Covenant Presbyterian following May Presbytery
Dear Church Family,
As you may know in February 2012 some members of Covenant Presbyterian Church delivered twenty-three charges against Pastor Bill Boyd to our Evangel Presbytery for investigation and judicial process. Most of the charges concerned matters of worship at Covenant, including Holy Communion, baptism, passing of the peace, the use of a common lectionary to guide preaching, and other liturgical matters. Another charge involved the timing of Pastor Boyd’s preaching at Covenant Presbyterian. The Presbytery established a Judicial Commission to investigate and recommend action on the charges. The Commission, comprising Teaching Elders (ordained pastors) and Ruling Elders throughout the Presbytery, none of whom were from Covenant or our daughter churches (Cahaba Park & Cross Creek), carried out a thorough investigation of the charges and interviewed witnesses and concluded that no charge violated Scripture or the Constitutional Standards contained in the PCA Book of Church Order. The Commission recommended, therefore, that there was no basis for bringing judicial process against Pastor Bill Boyd. The Commission’s report was presented to the Presbytery meeting this past Tuesday, May 8, and Evangel Presbytery received it unanimously. We are making available to you the entire report of the Judicial Commission. It is a lengthy document but detailed and informative, and we encourage you to review it. Since we had received requests from many of you for electronic distribution of such documents, we are attaching the report.
Having said that, your Session is mindful that the changes which have occurred within the last year have affected Covenant members differently, from enthusiastic welcome to distrust and rejection. Such changes are often difficult and some of us have experienced ambivalence ourselves. It is worth considering how God may be using these times to draw us closer to Him and for our spiritual growth. The Judicial Commission concluded its report with the following hope: “Our prayer is that brother will be restored to brother and those differences that divide will be dissolved in the unity we find in Jesus Christ. As a commission, we cannot do this, but we hope our efforts to provide a complete and thorough hearing has opened the way for reconciliation.”
As we committed to you in the last Congregational meeting, the Session and Staff have been meeting essentially weekly to flesh out the topics of concern many of you have brought to our attention. We have had engaging discussions, freely expressing dissenting opinions, yet coming to agreement as a body. Our plan is to submit a report to you soon, summarizing each of the topics, including discussion and rationale for the decisions. It is the Session’s desire continually to ensure that not only our worship practices are permissible but edifying to the Body of Christ at Covenant. As such we ask for your continued prayers that the Lord would guide our steps as we endeavor to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
His grace and peace to you,
Your Session
By, Earl W. (Sandy) Stradtman, Jr.
Clerk of the Session
