Convenient omissions from PCI clerk’s story

WITH all due respect to the Rev Jim Stothers, Deputy Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), there are actually three sides to the ongoing story of Steven Smyrl and the PCI.

That third side is what has conveniently been omitted from the recent statement of the Deputy Clerk (BT, 24/01/2020). Here are three examples.

The first omission concerns the failure of the Dublin and Munster Presbytery to observe even minimum best practice. For example, it was seven weeks before Mr Smyrl was informed the ‘complaint’ made against him concerned his marriage, despite repeated requests by him for that information. And it was another month before he obtained any further information and then only because he filed a request under GDPR.

The second concerns the Deputy Clerk’s reference to Jesus’s command in Matthew 18 about ‘dispute resolution’. If the Presbytery had obeyed that command, Mr Smyrl would have known from the start the identity of the complainant, instead of being kept in the dark, as he still is to this day.

The third concerns the wider implications of the action recently taken against Mr Smyrl, which the PCI likes to present as solely a matter between Mr Smyrl and the Church. This fails to address the ongoing systemic inadequacies noted above, as well as the continuing absence of robustly honest and pastorally informed Scriptural exegesis and conversation with one another on key matters inseparable from our humanity, including same-sex relationships.

As a Presbyterian by conviction rather than upbringing, I am frankly appalled by these omissions, inadequacies and failures.

PROFESSOR RUTH WHELAN Dublin