PCUSA Defrocks Esteemed Evangelical Pastor

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has defrocked a well-respected minister for the role he played in helping a congregation leave the denomination. Rev. Joseph B. Rightmyer—an honorably retired member of Grace Presbytery—had served as a Teaching Elder for more than forty years, serving most of his career as Chief Administrative Officer of Presbyterians for Renewal, an evangelical organization in the PC (USA). He also served churches in Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas as an interim pastor.

Mr. Rightmyer had served as Interim Pastor and Head of Staff at Highland Park Presbyterian Church since 2013. He was brought up on disciplinary charges in October after the influential Dallas congregation chose to leave the PC (USA) in order to affiliate with ECO: A Covenant Order of Presbyterians.

In January 2015, after an investigation and ecclesiastical trial, the Permanent Judicial Commission of Grace Presbytery found him guilty of eight charges and acquitted him on three more. You can read the full Decision here.

Teaching Elder Thomas Tickner, Chairman of Grace Presbytery’s Committee on Ministry initiated the disciplinary case. The Committee on Ministry is charged with providing oversight of Teaching Elders on behalf of the presbytery.

The eight charges on which Mr. Rightmyer was convicted are grouped around three actions directly related to Highland Park’s decision to depart the PC (USA) in favor of ECO. Each of these actions was alleged to violate two vows taken by Teaching Elders (ministers) upon ordination:

1. “Will you be governed by our church’s polity, and will you abide by its discipline? Will you be a friend among your colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject to the ordering of God’s Word and Spirit?” (W 4.4003e)
2. “Do you promise to further the peace, unity, and purity of the church?” (W 4.4003g)

The first charge—also the broadest—is advocating and facilitating the church’s departure from the PC (USA) in a manner not consistent with the presbytery’s dismissal policy. Essentially the presbytery alleged that Mr. Rightmyer knew the Dismissal Policy and intentionally chose to direct the congregation and its leadership toward ignoring it and unilaterally choosing to leave the denomination.

            Further, Mr. Rightmyer was charged with presiding as moderator at meeting(s) at which Highland Park’s session voted to depart the PC (USA) in a manner not consistent with the presbytery’s dismissal policy, and with moderating the congregational meeting at which the entire congregation voted to depart the PC (USA). Mr. Rightmyer was also acquitted on three other charges related to procedural matters related to an Associate Pastor of the congregation.

As a result of the guilty verdicts, Mr. Rightmyer was stripped of his ordination as a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA):

Whereas, you, JOSEPH B. RIGHTMYER, have been found guilty of the following offenses, and by such offenses you have acted contrary to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); now, therefore, Grace Presbytery acting in the name and under the authority of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), does hereby set aside and remove you from the ordered ministry of teaching elder.

The verdict raises the question of whether the case was strictly necessary.

Any member in good standing of a presbytery may file disciplinary charges against another member of the presbytery. In this instance there is nothing that required Mr. Tickner—the Chairman of the Committee on Ministry—to file charges but, realistically, if he hadn’t then some one else would have.

People familiar with the case claim that Grace Presbytery’s leadership hoped Mr. Rightmyer would renounce the jurisdiction of the PC (USA) rather than go to trial. In Presbyterian polity, a renunciation of jurisdiction is a unilateral act of a minister to depart the Presbyterian Church, which has the effect of giving up his ordination. Rightmyer chose instead to undergo the trial, to have his day in court, and to respond to the charges against him.

There was, in truth, a case to be answered. Highland Park did depart the PC (USA) in a manner inconsistent with the presbytery’s dismissal policy. If we assume that the presbytery’s dismissal policy was fair, reasonable, and just then it appears that Rightmyer and Highland Park acted improperly.

In truth, Grace Presbytery has a reputation for dealing harshly (even punitively) with churches that desire to leave the denomination. It also has a reputation for vitriol toward Teaching Elders who lead their churches from the denomination. Grace is the sort of place—its name notwithstanding—that would sooner take over a church, fire a pastor, and change the locks, than bless a congregation to depart to another denomination.

The Supreme Court of Texas has established that Neutral Principles apply in disputes over church property and corporate governance. In other words, when Highland Park—a Texas corporation—held a meeting of the corporation to make changes to the way it governed itself and to elect to depart the PC (USA) the Supreme Court of Texas established that such decisions we entitled to be ruled on by the Court using state law with no reference to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Again, in short, Highland Park had every right to choose—Dismissal Policy notwithstanding—to unilaterally depart the denomination with its property intact. Courts would not recognize the trust allegedly created by the Book of Order as enforceable against the church.

With these considerations in view, it is wholly understandable that Highland Park should decide to leave the PC (USA) with minimal interaction with Grace Presbytery. In the end the church and presbytery agreed to a settlement of $7.8m.

What of Rightmyer? An appeal of the verdict and censure can be filed to the synod’s permanent judicial commission, but it is unlikely to be overturned both for legal reasons as well as political ones. In order to appeal, the appellant will have to show that there was some error in finding jurisdiction (unlikely) or in a matter of law (also unlikely). The censure is the highest possible censure that the national church can enforce, which seems (granted, subjectively) to be more serious than the charges warranted when weighing Mr. Rightmyer’s 40 years of pastor service in the PC (USA).

Sadly, this trial indicates the state of the PC (USA) as a denomination. The church has repeatedly refused to try or to punish Teaching Elders who have violated the Constitution by engaging in same-sex sexual relationships, performing ‘marriages’ for gay couples, or teaching doctrines that cannot be called Christian, let alone Presbyterian. As Joseph D. Small has noted the PC (USA) as a church has come to value procedure over theology, polity over the principles. When a diverse community is attempting to hang together by a single string—polity—any attempt to navigate around or compromise that strand must be violently defended.