PCA HISTORICAL CENTER
Archives and Manuscript Repository for the Continuing Presbyterian Church


The Standing Judicial Commission
of the Presbyterian Church in America


 

Ecclesiastical Judicial Cases of the
Presbyterian Church in America

Completed Cases, 1975-2023
 [click the links below to view a listing of cases by year]

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Frequently used abbreviations :
BCO = Book of Church Order; OMSJC = Operating Manual of the Standing Judicial Commission [see BCO link];
M__GA = Minutes of General Asssembly. RAO = Rules of Assembly Operation [see BCO link];
RE = Ruling elder; SJC = Standing Judicial Commission; TE = Teaching elder (i.e., pastor or minister);
WCF = Westminster Confession of Faith.

Background History:

Committee on Judicial Business [1973-1977] and Subcommittee on Judicial Business [1978-1988]
    The First General Assembly (1973) erected as one of its Permanent Committees the Committee on Judicial Business. Staffing the Committee in that first year were

Teaching Elders
Ruling Elders
Todd Allen, Class of 1976 John Barnes, Class of 1976
Charles McNutt, Class of 1975 Robert Canada, Class of 1975
  John Glasser, Class of 1974
  Ralph Langford, Class of 1974

The first ecclesiastical judicial case brought to the General Assembly level in the PCA was that of TE Webb and TE Miller vs. Pacific Presbytery. That case was dismissed, as were the next five cases brought in the years 1975-1977. Case #1 in 1978, RE Campbell vs. Mid-Atlantic Presbytery, was the first case where a judgment was rendered other than that of being abandoned, ruled out of order, or otherwise not sustained.

The Standing Judicial Commission [1989-ongoing]
Originally proposed in 1985 [cf. M15GA (1985): 487f.], the Bylaws of the Presbyterian Church in America were subsequently amended to read, under Article IV. Permanent Committees, Item F:—
F. There shall be a Standing Judicial Commission composed of twenty-four members in accordance with BCO 15-4. The Standing Judicial Commission shall have oversight of appeals, complaints and references from lower courts.
    The Standing Judicial Commission will report directly to the General Assembly.
    The Standing Judicial Commission shall not be separately funded but administratively will operate as a subcommittee of the Committee on Administration.

Standing Judicial Commission
    The Standing Judicial Commission, as first constituted, included the following Teaching and Ruling Elders, divided into four classes by year:—
Teaching Elders
Ruling Elders
Robert M. Ferguson, Gulf Coast Presbytery, Class of 1993 John E. Spencer, Evangel Presbytery, Class of 1993
Dominic A. Aquila, South Florida, Class of 1993 John W. Lane, New Jersey, Class of 1993
John S. Ragland, South Texas, Class of 1993 William N. Brown, North Texas, Class of 1993
David W. Hall, Tennessee Valley, Class of 1992 Roy E. Allen, Great Lakes, Class of 1992
William Stanway, Grace, Class of 1992 Stanley D. Wells, Heartland, Class of 1992
Morton H. Smith, Western Carolina, Class of 1992 Eugene Friedline, James River, Class of 1992
Don K. Clements, New River, Class of 1991 W. Jack Williamson, SE Alabama, Class of 1991
Michael D. Bolus, Central Georgia, Class of 1991 Mark Belz, Missouri, Class of 1991
Donald A. Codling, Eastern Canada, Class of 1991 Dale Peacock, Louisiana, Class of 1991
John L. Mussleman, North Georgia, Class of 1990 Frank C. Horton, Mississippi Valley, Class of 1990
Thomas G. Kay, jr., Covenant, Class of 1990 Joe Reynolds, Westminster, Class of 1990
E. Crowell Cooley, Northern Illinois, Class of 1990 Harrison Brown, Susquehanna Valley, Class of 1990