Cowden feels as if he himself became an offense to the PCUSA institutional preservationists.  That thought is offensive to consider. It unmasks the intolerance of a system that cannot abide the continuing presence of people who lead change in evangelical and missional directions.

Presbyterianism has historically been described as a system of faith and practice that stands on a “three-legged stool” of theology, worship and polity. To lose one of the legs means all will ultimately fall.  We have watched with grief as the theological and worship practices of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have been undermined and degraded over the years. However, there were many who held out hope that the third leg, governance, which includes ecclesiastical discipline, might yet hold. That leg is now broken.

Two cases on two coasts

In the case of the Decision Presbytery of Southern New England v. John Merz a self-identified partnered gay man was not disciplined by the Permanent Judicial Commission even though his violation of the Biblical and constitutional (Book of Confessions and Book of Order) standards of marriage were stipulated to by both sides.

On the other coast is the case of Clark Cowden, an ordained PCUSA minister with a litany of service to the local church and higher governing bodies, who found himself as the subject of an 18-month synod investigation and the now vindicated survivor of a four-day ecclesiastical trial that ultimately proved a failed attempt to defrock him.

Taking aim at a Presbyterian poster-boy

Cowden is the executive presbyter of San Diego Presbytery, former presbytery executive of San Joaquin, member of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, former member of the PMAB executive committee and former chair of the General Assembly Mission Council’s leadership committee. He is nationally known as a good listener, creative thinker, compassionate conservative whose personal theology aligns with evangelicalism.

As the executive of a well-known conservative presbytery, one might expect Cowden to be an expert in church dismissals. Presbyteries like his have “lost” many churches during the turbulent realignment that has been taking place over the past half dozen years. But to this point San Diego has only had one church leave the denomination.  By all accounts, Cowden has done a good job working to keep churches “in.” So why did some want him “out?”

Allegations

Two years ago a couple of disgruntled presbyters wanted to see him ousted from office and stripped of his ordination. When asked what he had done to offend them, Cowden said, “it was all very political. I pushed the presbytery to be more missional, embracing change and doing things differently.  For people who like things the way they were in the ’50s that was too much. Also, for really detailed oriented people I’m too much of a big idea, generalist. I was also not a person they could control.”

Out of control synod

But if control was the hope of those who initiated disciplinary charges against their EP, things got completely out of control when the case was transferred to the synod where more people had reason not to like Cowden.

Do you remember the Mid Council Commission? Do you remember the idea of having porous presbyteries, non-geographic presbyteries and other creative ideas proposed to the 2012 General Assembly? Well, Cowden and San Diego Presbytery led the way on non-geographic creative thinking.

Cowden acknowledges those creative options were explored with the hope of keeping churches in the denomination and discovering a way of being a presbytery that is defined by theological orthodoxy, missional creativity and relational health rather than an outdated notion of only geography. However, other presbyteries saw it as a strategic attempt to “steal” their strongest churches. That loathing had been simmering and the allegations made by traditionalists in his own presbytery gave fellow presbyters in the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii the opportunity to go after him.

Read more.