Meeting in its quarterly Stated Meeting on Tuesday, January 19 the Presbytery of Southern Florida approved a Complaint from six members of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church who had been ‘ordered off church property’ last August in a widely publicized dispute over the church’s new pastor.

Acting in accordance with the PCA Book of Church Order, the Presbytery instructed the church’s Session (Board of Elders) to proceed to withdraw the action and seek reconciliation or to draft charges to bring the six to official discipline process (a church trial).

According to local press reports, the Presbytery found that the Coral Ridge Session “acted impulsively, improperly, prematurely, and without warrant” in ordering the six off church property in August.

The letter banning the six members from the premises and all functions of the church was mailed to all members of the church in the middle of August, during a dispute concerning the recently elected new pastor W. Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham and successor to the church’s founding pastor D. James Kennedy.

Tchividjian’s letter, signed in his role as Moderator of the Session, stated that “No church government can tolerate such an insurrection from those who will not listen to admonition, refuse all counsel, and will stop at nothing until they have overthrown legitimate authority and replaced it with their own.”

The six dissidents included Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, daughter of the former pastor, as well as Lorna Bryan, Kaye Carlson, Romeo DeMarco, and Jim and Jeanne Filosa. Tchividjian had ordered them to stay off church property and out of church programs, and “to stop writing accusatory letters to the congregation.”

DeMarco of Boca Raton was quoted in local press reports this week saying: “The elders [of Coral Ridge] passed judgment on us without charging us with any type of sin.”

Bill Ashcraft, a Session member, said in response to a press inquiry that the Session will hear a motion to rescind the ban at its next regular meeting, probably in March. “Obviously, we wish it had gone the other way,” Ashcraft said. “But this is the process we use, and the Session will now comply.”

No action was taken by Southern Florida Presbytery concerning the forming of a new, independent church in the area, called “New Presbyterian Church”, which was begun by DeMarco and other dissidents. About 700 people are regularly attending services, many of whom remain members in good standing of Coral Ridge.