On Wednesday afternoon, the Chairman of the Erskine College and Seminary released in an email to all Ministers and Elders of the ARP the full copy of the boards recently approved response.

The transmittal email contained the following comments from the Chairman, Mr. Joe Patrick:

Brothers and Fathers in Christ,

As many of you have probably already heard, the Erskine Board of Trustees met last week and approved a response to the 2011 Synod’s requests. This response will be included in the formal packet for Synod as part of Erskine’s overall report to Synod. Given the length of time between the meetings of the Erskine trustees and Synod, however, and the amount of public attention focused on this particular topic, it is likely that some would see copies of the approved response prior to its official release while others may not. This inconsistency is not our board’s intention.

Therefore, we thought it prudent to provide this response more quickly and directly. Synod requested that Erskine look into this matter, so it is only fitting we should reply to you, the elders and ministers of the ARP. Additionally, since we do not yet know which individuals will serve as delegates to Synod, we thought it best to provide this response to all elders and ministers who may serve as delegates. Please feel free to forward this report along to anyone who needs to see it.

While the timing does not allow for a fuller context, I am providing a link to this recently posted article at Erskine’s web site <http://news.erskine.edu/?p=1461>, which seeks to provide some context of the work Erskine trustees did to research, craft and deliberate on this response. In conjunction with this article, we plan to post the full response; however, we will wait 24 hours after this message is sent to provide broader access to the formal response. Read response here.

It is our sincere hope that this response will be received in the same spirit of cooperation and mutual commitment to the kingdom of Christ in which the original request was made and received.

Yours in Christ and for the Erskine Board of Trustees,

Joe Patrick, Chairman,
Erskine College & Theological Seminary Board of Trustees