We write concerning TE Peter Leithart, a member of your presbytery. TE Leithart resides and labors within the geographical bounds of Evangel Presbytery as the Director of Trinity House Institute and is installed as a teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) in Birmingham, AL through prayer and the laying on of hands.

Evangel Presbytery voted June 10, 2014 to ask Pacific Northwest Presbytery to instruct TE Peter Leithart to bring his ministry status into conformity with the Book of Church Order (BCO). Both Presbyteries are a part of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). At this called meeting, Evangel approved a letter addressed to Pacific Northwest Presbytery with the request to take action consistent with the BCO.

This letter contains Evangel’s second request to Pacific Northwest Presbytery to remedy the question of TE Leithart’s membership status in light of where he is presently laboring. The first letter was sent on February 14, 2014. Evangel Presbytery anticipated that Pacific Northwest would approve a response at their May 16, 2014 meeting. When there was no formal response, Evangel’s letter stated, “It is our understanding that at your most recent stated meeting that you did not ask TE Leithart to do any of the above and that he remains a TE without call in Pacific Northwest Presbytery.”

The provision in question is found in BCO 13-2, which says in part:

A minister shall be required to hold his membership in the Presbytery within whose geographical bounds he resides, unless there are reasons which are satisfactory to his Presbytery why he should not do so. When a minister labors outside the geographical bounds of, or in a work not under the jurisdiction of his Presbytery, at home or abroad, it shall be only with the full concurrence of and under circumstances agreeable to his Presbytery, and to the Presbytery within whose geographical bounds he labors, if one exists.

TE Leithart is a minister member of Pacific Northwest Presbytery. In the summer of 2013 he moved from within the geographical bounds of his Presbytery to Birmingham, Ala., without the permission of the Presbyteries as required by BCO 13-2. Evangel’s letter states:

We write concerning TE Peter Leithart, a member of your presbytery. TE Leithart resides and labors within the geographical bounds of Evangel Presbytery as the Director of Trinity House Institute and is installed as a teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) in Birmingham, AL through prayer and the laying on of hands.

Evangel Presbytery indicated in its letter that it had sent a non‐judicial inquiry to the Committee on Constitutional Business (CCB) for clarity on what is meant by “labor” in BCO 13‐2. Evangel refers to the response it received and wrote, “The CCB agrees with our interpretation of BCO 13-2. TE Leithart is engaged in “disseminating the Gospel for the edification of the Church” (BCO 8-4). Evangel determined that his call to Trinity House Institute and Trinity Presbyterian Church (CREC) was not “allowable for a teaching elder in its bounds” (BCO 8-7). Thus, he is laboring within our bounds without our permission or yours.”

The letter from Evangel Presbytery concluded with the following assessment and request:

He is laboring within our bounds without permission of his Presbytery or the Presbytery within whose geographical bounds he resides. He has not received the full concurrence of his Presbytery to labor in his ministry at Trinity House Institute and Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Therefore, we implore you to correct this error and to instruct TE Leithart to do one of the following:

1. Cease laboring in his unapproved calls at Trinity House Institute and Trinity Presbyterian Church, both within the bounds of Evangel Presbytery;
2. Obtain an approved call to a different particular work; or
3. Seek transfer to the CREC because he is on staff at a CREC church.

In our opinion, continuing to allow TE Leithart to remain a minister without call on the rolls of PNWP while laboring at Trinity House Institute and Trinity Presbyterian Church (CREC) would constitute negligence in performing your duty to oversee TE Leithart. We urge you to conform your practices to the BCO and to strive for the unity and the peace of the church through your oversight of TE Leithart. We believe that your inaction on this matter is detrimental to the peace of the church.

Evangel requested that Pacific Northwest “send a response to this letter before October 31, 2014.”