Section 1 is titled “Response Summary” and it states that the requested changes would not be ‘in the Institution’s best interest, nor in the best interest of the General Synod’ Four reasons are highlighted: impact on accreditation, legal liability, impact on academic freedom, and impact on Trustees independence.

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held in Due West, SC on Friday, February 17, the Trustees of Erskine College and Seminary voted not to alter its charter and bylaws to grant its sponsoring denomination authority to remove trustees.

Word of this action was made public through a brief press release posted on the Erskine website.

At the ARP General Synod meeting in June, 2011 the Synod voted to ask the Erskine board to consider altering the current situation, which currently only allows the Board to take such action. (Read summary of last year’s Synod here.)

The press release indicated that an ad hoc committee of the board had been formed in deal with this and several other requests that came from the Synod to the Erskine board last year. This committee was made up of Board Members David Connor, a Greenville, SC (ARP Ruling Elder) as chairman and includes Bill Cain (a Ruling Elder at First APR in Gastonia, NC and a current Seminary student), Ray Cameron (an ARP pastor from Lake Placid, Florida and a 1985 alum of the Seminary), Andy Lewis (a 1997 graduate of the college who currently serves as Senior Pastor of Mitchell Road PCA in Greenville)), Andy Putnam (ARP Pastor at Tirzah ARP in Rock Hill, SC, 1991 seminary graduate, and current Moderator of the Synod), Steve Suits (an ARP Ruling Elder at First Presbyterian in Columbia, SC and Moderator Elect of the Synod), and Ann Marie Tribble (member of the Ora ARP church in Gray Court, SC and 1985 alumna of the college)

The committee presented an eighteen page proposed response which was discussed informally by the Trustees in a Thursday morning session prior to the actual Board meeting.

Joe Patrick (a Ruling Elder from First ARP in Rock Hill is now worshipping at Greenville ARP in SC) who currently serves as Chairman of the Board, issued the following summary statement

“The supporting reasons for this response are made clear from evidence in historical Synod and Erskine documents, matters of law, accreditation standards, consultant advice and practical wisdom learned from other institutions by the diligent and thorough work done by the committee…(the report) brings clarity to misunderstandings from recent years about the governance relationship between Erskine and the ARP Church. This relationship has been mutually beneficial for most of the institution’s nearly 175-year history, and Erskine wants the relationship to continue.”

The actual vote to approve the report was not made public, but the chairman said it was ‘greater than a 2/3 majority’.

While the report itself was not released, a copy has been made available to The Aquila Report with the requirement that we not release the entire document, but rather only comment on it.

Section 1 is titled “Response Summary” and it states that the requested changes would not be ‘in the Institution’s best interest, nor in the best interest of the General Synod’ Four reasons are highlighted: impact on accreditation, legal liability, impact on academic freedom, and impact on Trustees independence.

Section 2 is a lengthy history on the relationship of the schools to the ARP General Synod, based primarily on the 1977 and 1978 statements of philosophy adopted by the Synod, which the ad hoc committee understands as the Synod’s current position. This leads to the conclusion that there are three separate and quite different ‘constituencies’ which have ‘due influence’ on the Board, none of which should more, or ‘un-due’ influence in the Board decisions. One is the General Synod; one is the Alumni Association, and one is the current faculty and staff. The relationship of the General Synod is described using the analogy of a child (Erskine) growing to adulthood and therefore leaving the control of the parent (General Synod)

Section 3 is a history of the relationship of the Board of Trustees to the ARP General Synod, which was of course the great tension which led to the legal battles resulting from the Snow Synod and Annual Synod of 2011.

Section 4 deals with the central issue of removal of trustees, which the ad hoc committee paper argues would not be in the best interest of the school or the Synod, based on four areas:

1. Impact on Accreditation. The committee’s position is that the Synod’s requested change would result in the loss of accreditation from both SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) for Erskine College and from ATS (Association of Theological Schools) for Erskine Seminary.

2. Legal Liability. The committee’s position is that granting the Synod permission to remove Trustees for cause would possibly result in blurring the corporate separation of the two and thus exposing the Synod to all the institutions debts, obligations and liabilities.

3. Impact of Academic Freedom. The paper quotes extensively from the work of a recently deceased long-time Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College, Arthur Holmes. It is unclear why they picked Holmes for the source to support their argument since over the years he clearly moved from a strong confessional church (OPC) to more broad theological grounds in the EPC and PCUSA. Holmes, writing in WorldView Magazine in 2004, says; “So in thinking about politics, God’s purpose for government is the key. Since social justice seems to be the overall biblical concern, that goal should be the main focus of Christian political thinking and involvement.” The report’s conclusion is that only the Trustees have ultimate responsibility for academic freedom.

4. Impact on Trustees independence. The committee’s argument on this point assumes that a totally independent Erskine board is ‘the best means by which the General Synod’s desire will be fulfilled.’

Section 5 dealt with communication, stating that the current communications processes are both appropriate and sufficient.

Although the Board of Directors press release did not indicate as much, The Aquila Report has learned that at least one member of the Ad Hoc Committee will be presenting a Minority Report to the Board when it meets again next week. We will report on that document as soon as we are able.

Don K. Clements is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and is a co-founder of and current VP/News of The Aquila Report.