THANK YOU, Dee!! You, and the tenacious PSC Petitioners and everyone else who co-labored and prayed for this most unlikely outcome.

Who knows what will happen next? This is what I think should happen:

1) Mark needs to go.

He’s lost the congregation. The elders need to put their personal feelings aside, and honor the congregation’s vote. They badly need to either step down themselves, or take radical and uncomfortable steps to earn or re-earn PSC’s trust.

The worst thing that could happen is that the elders just give Mark paid leave to rest, heal, learn & grow, or whatever. Mark isn’t the only problem here, but he poured gasoline on a problem and accelerated it terribly. While I do pray for Mark’s healing too, his redemptive path certainly should not ever be connected to any timetable or any particular platform in ministry. Also, there were warning signs of Mark’s behavior at Church of the Cross. Dr. Diane Langberg warns that patterns of behavior like these are often very deep-seated and resistant to genuine change (vs. the appearance of sincere change).

2) Get an interim pastor who is knowledgeable and really seasoned in spiritual abuse. Ask Christian abuse victim advocates for recommendations. This is far more important for PSC’s healing at this point than preaching gifts & memorable sermons.

3) Have GRACE do an Organizational Assessment.

If Mark resigns, you can skip the $$$$ and time that a truly independent investigation into spiritual abuse takes, and move on to the bigger question of, how did this ever happen???

Everyone knows how big & complex PSC is, and that leadership was dysfunctional before Mark came around. You need a painful and objective deep dive by experts to get a thorough diagnosis and recommendations. Also, their final report should be viewed by everyone in the congregation.

4) While you’re at it, have GRACE do the Safeguarding Initiative and write abuse policies. I don’t even think PSC has abuse policies, which is shockingly reckless for a church of that size & especially one that prides themselves on being so wicked smaht.

5) ALL current PSC leaders should educate themselves on spiritual abuse by reading Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church by Michael J. Kruger.

Kruger is President of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC, so he’s writing from the concerned perspective of pastoral leadership, and gets why people’s first instinct is to defend their pastors. He explains what spiritual abuse is, walks readers through spiritual abuse in the OT & NT, explains why churches cover it up, and gives tips for how Search Committees can screen for spiritual abuse while looking for their next pastor.

6) Transparency with the congregation is KEY. Commit yourselves to radical transparency. Trust me, the congregation has already learned how to read right through your spin, anyway.

7) Acknowledge that NO ONE wanted to speak out against Mark Booker, but felt it was urgent to do so, for the health and flourishing of PSC. Realize that the Holy Spirit moves and works through the congregation.

Yes, be willing to meet in small groups with them – but not to tell them what you are going to do, but rather, to LISTEN and LEARN from THEM what you ought to be doing. Christian leadership ≠ might making right.

8) Be proactive in turning PSC from toxic to healthy by reading Pivot by Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer in community. And by community, I mean, humbling yourselves and reading it with the Park Streeters you’d least like to hear from, who will show you your actual blind spots.

9) Obvs, pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray without ceasing.

Oh, and I forgot!

10) Have a wise and compassionate, Christian trauma-informed counselor available to help heal the wounded.

The current leadership is too complicit (and possibly too ignorant about trauma & spiritual abuse) to offer pastoral care here. Besides which, I’d never trust the leaders not to breach confidentiality, since that was a common theme in Mark’s behavior.

“The Hot Potato Passes to the Stunned Elders”

Well, one thing’s for sure … you don’t want any of the current elders on a pastor search committee if it comes to that!

Elizabeth Klein: 9) Obvs, pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray without ceasing.

And (10) Ask those amazing pastors and elders who just resigned to withdraw their letters of resignation! We need some humble, truth-telling leaders with good institutional memory!! Quick let’s get them back, if they are open to it, before they get snatched up* for being such awesome and courageous and faithful siblings in Christ!

*So I know “snatched up” isn’t so nice to other lovely communities in Christ! I mean this slightly in jest… ultimately if the Holy Spirit has something else for these siblings, we do NOT want to delay them and their dear, dear families a single day! Buuuuut, oh, please, please can we keep them and walk into healing with them?

Well done, PSC members. You saw sin for sin and made your voice heard. There is still much work to be done. The church cannot be rebuilt under the same leadership that allowed and participated in this sin.

For Mark’s co-abusers, you should repent of your sins (wrath, manipulation, espionage, hatred) or resign immediately:

Jason Abraham
Geoff Rush
David Rix
Mike Ahearn
Nathan Skinner (who apologized to the congregation but needs to also ask individuals for forgiveness)

For Mark’s sycophants, opportunists, and other allies who have enabled this regime: you must also resign. You may also be victims in this, manipulated into believing that you need to follow this path to preserve the church. It should be evident at this point that you were wrong. Take time to grieve of your decisions, but do so outside of a position of leadership:

David Murgatroyd
Andrew Zeigler
Deb Gallagher
Margaret Sloat
Mary Harvey
Randall Weitzig

I hope that one day you can experience the grace of repentance for how you have damaged the staff, congregation, and image of the Gospel through your actions.

This can’t end with Mark. There is much work to be done.

Observant Outsider,

Mwah Ha Ha Ha

Observant Outsider: To take a diverse congregation and put all of the power in one viewpoint (conservative, complementarian, traditional). Too bad, the congregation got in the way.

^^ this exactly. also Mark knows for longevity he needs to surround himself by yes men which Abraham is performing excellently. The number of people who collaborated with Mark in this mess (like David Rix) is how Mark keeps making messes. Unfortunately, because of Mark’s theological ideology I do not see him stepping down. Knowing and serving with him personally, I know that his narrow conservative ideology is such that he truly believes that he is the outstretched hand of God in the congregation because God put him in this leadership position and that is affirmation enough for him that what he does is what God wants. That is why he can say to people point blank that “its his gut” why a person should go. And he and Mandy can rationalize it and have for years! But the BoE will apparently let the congregation burn for some reformed complementarian theology. And Mark is so close to making the church reflect this sort of ideology… its only time! I shiver reading Perkins’ account.

What an amazing letter from Pastor Perkins. I’m going through a very difficult circumstances right now, wanting to just walk away from the Lord and the faith I’ve clung to so tightly for so long. It all seems rather hopeless. But Pastor Perkins’ opening paragraph has shone a light into the deep darkness invading my soul:

“I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who understands the burdens we bear and promises to deliver us from every tribulation. Through each and every hardship, we are refined. By clinging faithfully to him in long-suffering his glory is manifest in and through our lives. In humility, Christ himself bore the cross to complete the work given to him, and through suffering, God’s goodness has come to bear on generation after generation. He was delivered through death and lives in glorified life as we all shall when we take up our own crosses and follow him. One day we shall stand together in unity around his throne crowned with everlasting joy when sin is no more and the troubles of this world melt away.”

What beautiful, life-giving words. I’m going to print this letter up and re-read it over and over. The whole letter is a shining representation of all it means to be a pastor and care for the people as Christ does. Of what it means to be a Christian and the call we have to live in love and unity. I wish I were a member of his congregation. What a loss for PSC. What a blessing for Triangle Grace to be shepherded by such a man.

Does anyone have a copy of leslie resignation letter? Please post here or send it to me individuallly.

Watcher:
Mark and his wolf pack have hurt a lot of people.It is time they humbly step down so that this beleaguered church can rebuild.But I predict they will not take that path.It leaves them a few key options:

1) Launch an “independent” investigation.
2) Put Mark on leave to rehabilitate
3) Affirm Mark and say that everyone else is mistaken.

They now know from Sunday that #3 will no longer work.SO Based on prior patterns of behavior, they will likely try a combo of 1 and 2.They will say, “In light of the unexpected perspectives that came to light last week, the board has hired an outside investigative team… blah blah blah.We are also concerned about the pain inflicted on Mark and his family, and we have agreed for Mark to go on a voluntary leave of absence for three months for spiritual reflection, healing, and discernment.We have hired an interim senior minister, X, who has experience working in situations such as ours. He is an excellent preacher and leader, and he will start on June 17.During this difficult time that has caused so much hurt to all, we will seek unity to heal and pray….” Blah, blah, blah…

Then the plan will be for Mark to return after Labor Day.He will come back, three months hiking in Colorado and rafting in the Rockies “a new man, healed, with a fresh perspective.”“The Lord has really met me in a profound way, and I’m ready to serve you in greater humility and deeper love… blah blah” The people who resigned will be long in the rear-view mirror (bye bye Damian, Julian, Ray, Leslie, Yannick; bye bye petitioners; it was swell knowing ya).Maybe Tim and Tammy gets to keep his job after all.A little opposition to toy with is fun for the cat to have at least one mouse to scare into a hole.Over the summer, the Interim senior minister calms everyone down, tells everyone in private meetings that they have legit concerns and deep hurts, tells everyone in public that we need to heal, we need to love, we need “radical forgiveness.”Mark comes back in soft tones.Adam is now his new saluting preaching associate, purchased with just a title; Andrew becomes the executive by January 2025.

The week before Thanksgiving, the investigation comes back with another highly controlled report, that Geoff Raux, David M, and Andrew Ziegler figured out how to appear independent but it will not be at all.Those guys have learned how to master the fix….Everyone goes away for Thanksgiving, and then we launch into Christmas Tide.Investigation is long gone.

Most of the petitioners will have already left b/c they knew it was not independent, but all the naive folk in the middle will continue to believe everything they are told without much question.“You can never satisfy those petitioners.” Some of the old timers who smell the rot, try to find the positive b/c they ain’t leaving no matter what.The independent investigation only affirms the vicinage and voca. “We have done our due diligence.We have turned over every rock.Mark is “a gem.”So by November, they exonerate Mark for the fourth time, and the diamond in the rough is sparkly in his flowing robes.

“Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime is on our side, yes it is…”Pop the champagne.

… Dee, something like the above is what is going to happen, unless God intervenes. I’m still betting on God for this one.

Not to be Debbie Downer after Sunday’s miracle, but this scenario is entirely plausible.

From Cindy Cutlip’s testimony:

“Mark uses time to his advantage, and has said to me, ‘A wise mentor told me that in chaotic situations as a leader, time is your friend.’”

However, I pray that this will not be the case! I pray that Mark resigns.

Please allow Mark Street Church to go back to being Park Street Church, so PSC can begin the heavy-lifting, longtime work of healing.

The congregation made a big difference on Sunday. The congregation can also hold the elders’ feet to the fire on this.

So many Christians in abuse situations tie the concept of “mercy” to a seemingly redeemed abuser earning back a paid, ministry position. That’s not mercy. Worse, it may be enabling.

Mercy, rather, is reconciliation with God, a renewed relationship with Him, a further opening of the heart to become more Christlike. God’s mercy leads us back to Him, with our messy, real, non-curated selves begging for help. We cannot dictate a Holy Spirit timetable in another person’s life.

Abusers, in general, are very good at feigning sincere repentance – usually because they gain something in return. It’s like the “honeymoon” cycle for a violent spouse, who insists he’s sorry for beating her, cries, buys her flowers, promises to be a totally different and better human – but only to trap her in the relationship where he continues to abuse her.

The promise of a paid, ministry platform would motivate any abuser to do what it takes, to convince the congregation & elders of sincere heart change. Whereas, the only way to truly give Mark a real chance to change is to take that reward away. Moreover, it’s the loving thing to do, for someone who is addicted to power and control.

I do believe in being financially merciful. Mark has a wife and (4?) kids, so do give him a severance package.

But please let him go. And don’t write a glowing recommendation letter for another pastorate, making him some other church’s problem.

I do pray for Mark’s healing, and that he would find a compassionate and yet extremely clear-eyed counselor, who is seasoned in matters like spiritual abuse. Someone like Chuck DeGroat – who, by the way, says patterns like these can take 10 years of deep, hard hard work to change.

Mark’s former co-laborer,

This could be true. There are some who call Mark “the Lord’s anointed one.” If Mark actually has a clinical narcissistic personality disorder then it will be very difficult for him to accept his own failings.

Muff Potter: I think you’re talking about a dictatorship

Dictator: “one holding complete autocratic control: a person with unlimited governmental power; one ruling in an absolute and often oppressive way”

Max: Dictator: “one holding complete autocratic control: a person with unlimited governmental power; one ruling in an absolute and often oppressive way”

And Christians LOOOOOVE Dictatorship.
As long as the Dictator is one of their Anointed or (like RO Patriarch Kyril) THEY get to sit at the Dictator’s Right Hand as Court Pet.

dee: You mentioned how Booker looked. You didn’t mention how all the people mistreated looked. Why?

The congregation at this point needs to be careful that they strike the right balance of sympathy vs. empathy in this sad situation.

Townsend: This comment is for all pastors, not just Mark that put themselves before the church.

Shouldn’t you say that he put himself before the children of god he is supposed to serve.

Worried and Anxious: Mark possibly had the worst day of his career yesterday. I wish he could have been spared that, that would have been torture for anyone.

Pat Chen
Andrew Swenson
Emma Nyquist
Robyn Bunch
Dan Verrengia
Kris Perkins
Kimberley Morrison
John Knight
Cindy Cutlip
Shannon Jacobs
Michael Balboni
Nick Dedeke
Yannick Assogba
Damian Long
Julian Linell
Pay Park
Tammy McLeod(?)
Tim Leary(?)

Worried and Anxious:”I observed him during the special meeting, and I could not recall the last time I saw a man looking so miserable and isolated.”

++++++++++++++

It’s simply cause and effect. He was warned there would be consequences for how he was conducting himself.

And rightly so. In no context should autocracy, cruel or not, be received with passive compliance. The longer it is accommodated the more lives are damaged.

If that matters.

If human lives are more important than some doctrinal concept.

Elastigirl: In no context should autocracy, cruel or not, be received with passive compliance. The longer it is accommodated the more lives are damaged.

That’s really the bottom-line for PSC membership to reflect on. In some respects, many churches need to be preached empty … but this is not the way to do it.

Townsend: By causing discord and disharmony in the local church for the outside world to see

I have to disagree with this. The leaders should be more concerned about their personal Christian life and what God thinks, than what the ‘outside world’ sees. When they worry about what others think is when they hide, lie, and cause trouble for the Church.

Worried and Anxious,

The Word also says we should grieve our sins. Could this humiliation be a necessary part of his journey? I can’t say for sure. Sometimes good things are hard. I feel sorry for him but all of this could have been avoided if he make different choices along the way. This IS the most compassionate path, because when people have attempted to resolve their differences privately he has been unrelenting.

And I do care about Mark, because digging his heels and remaining at PSC will continue to reveal his actions, put attention on him from the media, and put his family through more pain (which he loves to talk about how hard all of this is on his family).

When the Park Street Five met with the VC, each had another Park Street pastor by their side supporting them. So, there are 11 current and former pastors advocating for Mark’s resignation. And there are three other former pastors who have made it clear that they agree with the 11. The people who understand Park Street the best, and those who know Mark as an employer the most are nearly unanimous. He is the wrong man for this job. He was promoted far beyond his competence and character. The argument that most of the staff approve of him doesn’t hold water because abusers tend to hide their true character from those who are not close to them. They affirm him because they don’t know him. Abusers normally only clash with apparent threats they can’t control. (Like better educated employees).

And now a majority of the congregation has an accurate understanding of the situation. And they have made their wishes obvious. How can the elders possibly justify defending him? How can he remain with a clear conscience when he knows that the vast majority of his senior staff and two of his elders would rather resign than continue to work with him. How can he possibly lead a congregation when most of them have publicly voted “no confidence” in his character? No competent and ethical board of directors would even consider moving forward with this leadership. No CEO who cared about the future of his organization would even think of continuing under these circumstances. Resignation is the only responsible option.

Worried and Anxious: Can’t we feel for Mark’s victims and for Mark at the same time?

No one is delighting in this situation or what Mark went through. However your earlier comments come dangerously close to portraying Mark as a victim, when he is the abuser. Mark and the Board have engaged in DARVO (deny attack reverse victim offender), trying to brainwash the congregation into feeling bad for him (“this is so hard for me and my family”). Look at the list of resigned or fired ministers, resigned elders, and consider their families. The Sunday meeting is a direct consequence of Mark’s choices and the first time he’s faced any accountability. I’m not happy that he’s in this situation and I will pray for him. But does being loving require feeling sorry for him, when he is reaping what he sowed?

Also, Dan Verrengia retired. He had been planning to retire. He was not dismissed by leadership.

Worried and Anxious,

I don’t perceive anyone being happy or feeling any moral superiority about any of this. Perhaps a modicum of relief that something more just is happening.

this is simply being expressed in an unvarnished way, without embroidery.

My view is the whole of creation sighs with relief when forms of justice happen. There is no reason for sentient beings to shut off this very intuitive reflex.

It is unwarranted and a mistake to spiritualize this away.

and the irony of corporately pining for something just, and then when a modicum of it happens and people breath a sigh of relief they are guilted for it is…. psychologically problematic.

The one church I was in that reached this point with their pastor (it took a lot of money to get him to resign; no one could seem to get him to leave although we were “elder governed”, and the pastor was only one of the elders)imploded. People just got tired of the drama and the mess, especially when there were other good churches they could attend. I’m afraid that will happen to Park Street if the elders don’t take clear action on the wishes of the congregation.

The vote:
42.85% or 186 votes for Mark Booker
55.76 % or 242 votes against Mark Booker
0.01% or 6 abstentions
434 total votes cast

This is a remarkable and unexpected outcome. I thought things were sealed after the first meeting.

Elizabeth Klein: From Cindy Cutlip’s testimony:

“Mark uses time to his advantage, and has said to me, ‘A wise mentor told me that in chaotic situations as a leader, time is your friend.’”

His mentor was right. If a leader can hang on through the initial push-back, he will usually end up staying in place. That is unfortunate. It means a leader with less ability to feel guilt and shame, and who doesn’t care as much about the well-being of the church, is more likely to stay in place than a leader who resigns for the sake of the church, even if he believes himself innocent of charges.

So any strategy of delay helps the wrong kind of leader ride it out.

Worried and Anxious: As much as Mark Booker needed to be rebuked, please also remember he is brother is Christ needing compassion. I observed him during the special meeting, and I could not recall the last time I saw a man looking so miserable and isolated. Can you imagine what it was like for him to get raked over coals in front of 400+ people for 4 hours? Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and Mark possibly had the worst day of his career yesterday. I wish he could have been spared that, that would have been torture for anyone. Pray for him as well.

Compassion is a good trait, but what I think what people are reacting to is the difference between someone suffering for other reasons and someone facing discipline because they’ve been stubborn.

I am not associated with PSC, but from what I’ve read, he had multiple opportunities to avoid this. He is still inexplicably withholding information about his degrees, for instance. It is such a small thing that he could do to bring peace. Even if his credentials are less than what the congregation would have expected, it’s the hiding of them that is the big issue. And that pales in comparison to the multiple reports describing what people say they experienced as abuse of power and spiritual abuse.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Heb. 12:11
The key is whether someone is trained by it.
“Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. ” Prov. 29:1 To me, compassion is that hearing what he heard at the meeting will break through before there is no remedy. A person can sear his conscience by continually sloughing off feedback they don’t want to hear. Self-deceit is a heckuva narcotic.

This doesn’t sound true of you, but I think what people may be reacting to here is from experience where they saw the pastor suddenly become a victim. Often this is prompted by his own bemoaning, or of allies bemoaning how difficult this “season” has been for him and his family. And nearly 100% of the time, that “compassion” results in the pastor being let off the hook and further encased in sinful patterns.

From afar, I think compassionate prayer for him would focus on him not hardening his heart in response to the pain, but being able to see himself clearly (which might prove even more painful) and repenting in truth.

Repentance would certainly include resignation for he sake of the church, because the church cannot heal while he is there at this point.

If he doesn’t leave, the elders can expect an acceleration of the decline of PSC.

Eyewitness: Chapel Hill Bible Church is set to vote tomorrow on proposed changes in bylaws that are likely to permanently gut the power of the congregation and enshrine rule by a small number of men.

My guess is that Park Street Church is (was?) headed in this direction under Mr. Booker and the BoE.

Linn: People just got tired of the drama and the mess, especially when there were other good churches they could attend.

And we wonder why there are millions of Christians “church-shopping” in America. Perhaps the largest growing Christian segment in the nation are the “Dones” (done with church, but not done with Jesus) … too much darm drama … too much “My way or the highway” … too much flesh and not enough Spirit.

Just want to mention that there is a small math error here. It’s 1.38% abstentions, not 0.01% abstentions. 🙂

The PSC website has been updated already to remove Leslie Liu and Yannick Assogba from the list of elders. Didn’t waste much time to do that!

Whistleblower:
The fix is in. Mark is meeting with the staff tomorrow (without the rebels, of course) to try to explain away everything he’s done and talk about moving forward. Pray that at least one person in that meeting will call him out and challenge his “truth.”

I don’t see Mark’s loyalists calling him out.

But if they just tell him, “Sorry, Mark, it’s just not working for you here & you gotta go,” that’s fine by me.

Will pray that that happens tomorrow. PSC has a LOT of hard, healing work ahead without being sucked into the Mark drama all over again.

Observant Outsider:
The PSC website has been updated already to remove Leslie Liu and Yannick Assogba from the list of elders. Didn’t waste much time to do that!

Wow! Strange they haven’t removed the ministers, though… hmmm ….

Max:
Whistleblower,

Narcissists never give up.It’s up to others to do the right thing.

This. It’s an illness. Pride comes before the fall..

During the special meeting, which I attended, the “affirm” side used a variety of implicit/explicit reminders like (please bear with me):

* not affirming will only prolong the unnecessary conflict (and turn the church into “Gaza”)
* When Ockenga comes he would be also rejected (call for a special meeting) like the current senior minister, the petitioners should feel shameful
* not affirming would in effect disqualify the senior minister not only from PSC but from any possibility of ministering in the US – so not affirming would be a grave mistake (who would judge?)
* The BoE would only “consider again” even when the motion is not affirmed – the vote is not a re-affirmation vote on the senior minister
* The vote should only consider whether with the information that the BoE had *then* (not now!) whether they acted faithfully
* they do not see anything (even after the release of various testimonials) that would change their view – Several ministers that were on MLT spoke out during the meeting, and this speech I remember came even after those (together with the “Gaza” comment)
* The congregation has no authority by bylaws to have a say on employment matters (the sole purview of the senior minister), so re-instating fired/resigned ministers is off the table
* The staff culture was already toxic under Huggenberger, so the current senior minister has no responsibility for creating this mess
* from “watching his face at that time”, Kris seemed to be disappointed when the search committee announced the current senior minister coming in (so implied that he might have his grievances expressed in the recent testimony) – it was clearly stated at the beginning of the meeting that any attacks to other members will not be tolerated by the moderator, but the testimony went on under the justification that it is a “personal perspective germane to the motion at hand”
* Michael made false accusations in his pages regarding annual report changes
* One testimony that it was very difficult under Kimberly and after her departure he was so happy under Julian(!) and Mark, so the decision was rightful
* they would rather let all the resigned ministers plus Tim go and not see them again (this was when Tim was asking the congregation whether the congregation would wish to not see so many ministers anymore, where some people shouted “Yes”)
* The “not affirm” side often started by invoking their repentance, whereas several who spoke from the leadership said that although it is human nature to find someone to blame and behind with nefarious motives, it is just the complicated situation and differing perspectives that were not perfectly(?)/properly(?) handled

The moderator even tried to let the vote be counted by simple stand/sit count until the motion to use a paper ballot was essentially unanimously affirmed by the congregation.

For outsiders, the final tally might appear indeed surprising, but just sitting and hearing the two sides during the meeting was anything but “fair/balanced” and would have affected some of the “moderates”. But because of the speeches I left the building without much hope whether the special meeting’s result could be handled properly by the BoE that lost another two by resignations last week. I pray but I cannot foresee any good path forward.

Observant Outsider: I hope that one day you can experience the grace of repentance for how you have damaged the staff, congregation, and image of the Gospel through your actions.
This can’t end with Mark. There is much work to be done.

Such wise and courageous words, Observant Outsider! You chose your username accurately and I sense the Holy Spirit speaking through your words.
Also, thank you for naming those who are abusing others! The time for hiding behind the names of committees, boards, and groups is over.

A member of the community asked this, and has reported that there has been no response.

Does anyone know if the results of the vote have been officially announced yet? Perhaps Robot’s Rules of Order or the Bylaws address when a vote is taken how long the Board of Elders* has to announce it?

Date: June 3, 2024 at 8:44:39 PM GMT-4
To: Clerk
Cc: Julian Linnell , Damian Long , Randall Wetzig
Subject: Re: Response Needed: Membership at Park Street Church

Hi, Debbie.

As the clerk, will you be announcing the results of the vote? Or have you already done that to the members on file via email?

Just checking for an announcement.

[…]

Thanks!

[name withheld]

+++++++++++++++++

[Again tagging the Board of Elders here for the record. From the Park Street Church website as of June 5, 2024]

JASON ABRAHAM
Moderator
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

DEBORAH GALLAGHER
Clerk
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

GREGG HANSEN
Assistant Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

MARY HARVEY
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

LINDA HERMAN
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

RICHARD IBEKWE
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

GABRIEL LING
Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

DAVID MURGATROYD
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

GEOFFREY RAUX
Moderator-Elect
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

KIRSTIN PELTZ
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

DANIEL VOGELZANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

JOSHUA WANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

STEVE WEIBLEY
Elder
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIANNE WHITE
Missions Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

ANDREW ZIEGLER
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

Mark’s former co-laborer: Knowing and serving with him personally, I know that his narrow conservative ideology is such that he truly believes that he is the outstretched hand of God in the congregation because God put him in this leadership position and that is affirmation enough for him that what he does is what God wants. That is why he can say to people point blank that “its his gut” why a person should go.

Thank you for sharing this here! It really helps to hear from you.

This description reminds me of the grandiosity that is characteristic of those with narcissistic personality disorder.

Let’s all keep praying for Mark…. So many signs point to this as a root cause.

A necessary church-wide read:
When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse https://a.co/d/3RtFxSE

Mark’s former co-laborer: the BoE will apparently let the congregation burn for some reformed complementarian theology

There is a mean spirit behind the proliferation of New Calvinism in the American church. TWW has posted several pieces on ministers and ministries in this movement and impacts on congregations snared by shifting belief and practice in their churches. The only way to stop it is to protect congregational governance by pushing back on elder-rule polity. Pastors, elders and deacons are called to be servants in the Body of Christ, not overlords.

Friend of Park Street Church: Thank you for sharing this here!It really helps to hear from you.

This description reminds me of the grandiosity that is characteristic of those with narcissistic personality disorder.

Let’s all keep praying for Mark…. So many signs point to this as a root cause.

A necessary church-wide read:
When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse https://a.co/d/3RtFxSE

Jack,

TEDS,

Hello— TEDS, Friend of PSC and Jack:
Here is a leaked video from Screwtape.org (command room of the Prince of this World): The Chief was showing a Google map with location and membership-stats of all churches on the planet, for assignment to a bunch of rookie devils bustling to jump off: ‘I’ll take Timbuktu’ ‘I want this antique church in Beijing’ ‘ this one in Salt Lake City is cool’.
SCREWTAPE: ” Quiet! Stupid Lazy Caspers! Your productivity score will be highest in churches so crowded w/ true Christians that you cannot even find room to land in the parking lot.”

Jesus is the Good Shepherd: He knows EVERY sheep by name, and loves it so much He will risk everything, even Death, to find and save anyone who lost its way.

BTW: Thank you Dee! for opening this platform for free-speech and mutual edification of fellow pilgrims (epentant sinners) running with our eyes fixed on Jesus our Savior.

In regards to why ministers are still on the website: their resignations are effective after a few weeks. They are staying on to help oversee the transition of their ministries and are still serving. I’m guessing Tim will be fired so watch out for that.

John Knight, an experienced psychologist, suggested Mark undergo an assessment for narcissistic personality disorder based on his behavior. I want to be careful about speculating about an illness that only a professional can diagnose, but I think this could be true. Accounts of Mark remind me of my father, who is very narcissistic and maybe clinically so. In particular, they both hyper-focus on how hard things are for them (even when others are the ones actually suffering). Mark does this even more so in private. I can’t remember where, but in the comments/article someone testified that they were off-put by Mark because he reminded them of their narcissistic/problematic family members. If this is true, Mark’s disordered behavior is being enabled by the Board instead of getting him the help he needs to avoid these destructive patterns.

Friend of Park Street Church,

Sh*t like this is what made me allergic to Christianese.

For those offended by my request for compassion for Mark, was there a way could I have phrased it differently? Or do you fundamentally disagree with my request?

Compassion is not the same as leniency. I want Mark to resign and apologize to all whom he has hurt, and I have put in substantial time and resources towards this as a petitioner. I am not some sort of sleeper agent trying to influence public opinion to get him off the hook. But I am also a human being who saw another human in great distress, however unrepentant he may be, and I firmly believe Jesus’ response would be compassion as well. I don’t understand how this could be portrayed as over-spiritualizing.

To Sardis and janiceg, thank you for clarifying that Dan Verrengia retired. That’s makes it much easier to understand why he supports Mark.

Friend of Park Street Church: (I’m not taking over small group leadership at this point, I’m just reaching out as one of the pastors.)

Which is code for “I’m coming to spy on you for Mr. Booker.”

Observant Outsider:
In regards to why ministers are still on the website: their resignations are effective after a few weeks. They are staying on to help oversee the transition of their ministries and are still serving. I’m guessing Tim will be fired so watch out for that.

John Knight, an experienced psychologist, suggested Mark undergo an assessment for narcissistic personality disorder based on his behavior. I want to be careful about speculating about an illness that only a professional can diagnose, but I think this could be true. Accounts of Mark remind me of my father, who is very narcissistic and maybe clinically so. In particular, they both hyper-focus on how hard things are for them (even when others are the ones actually suffering). Mark does this even more so in private. I can’t remember where, but in the comments/article someone testified that they were off-put by Mark because he reminded them of their narcissistic/problematic family members. If this is true, Mark’s disordered behavior is being enabled by the Board instead of getting him the help he needs to avoid these destructive patterns.

That makes perfect sense. I guess I don’t know much about elder resignations. I didn’t realize their resignations were immediate. I assumed they also had some kind of notice. I’m also very tired. I didn’t realize how much emotional toll this would take on me!

Worried and Anxious:
For those offended by my request for compassion for Mark, was there a way could I have phrased it differently? Or do you fundamentally disagree with my request?

Compassion is not the same as leniency. I want Mark to resign and apologize to all whom he has hurt, and I have put in substantial time and resources towards this as a petitioner. I am not some sort of sleeper agent trying to influence public opinion to get him off the hook. But I am also a human being who saw another human in great distress, however unrepentant he may be, and I firmly believe Jesus’ response would be compassion as well. I don’t understand how this could be portrayed as over-spiritualizing.

There is absolutely nothing wrong in how you feel about Mark Booker.

I just think it’s important to also give others the same space and freedom to feel the way that they do in this situation.

I think that trauma erases one’s voice and agency, and takes away relationships and even a sense of self, and that there are some Park Streeters here who are genuinely traumatized.

So a traumatized person even having the freedom to state, “I feel this way,” is important in regaining a sense of self. We have to bring our real selves before God, and one another.

A lot of comments here (mine included) aren’t so much about how you feel and where you’re coming from, as much as they are observations about evangelical culture in general (such as cheap grace, toxic positivity, etc.).

Mark’s former colaborer,

“These men would never operate this way in their business dealings or careers. It’s funny how all that goes out the window here. Politics is funny like that.”
++++++++++++++++++

i’d say it’s stupid faith.

faith in some concept, minus the ethics of it, the wisdom of it, let alone the logic and intelligence of it.

…which really just turns it in to magic.

ridiculous.

TEDS: I didn’t realize how much emotional toll this would take on me!

I’m sorry you are going through this. Church should not be so miserable and exhausting … it’s supposed to be a place of refreshing in the presence of the Lord. Then men come along and mess it up.

Mark’s former colaborer: the theological diversity is moving toward more conservatism

In this case, “conservatism” appears to be New Calvinism … is that Mr. Booker’s theological persuasion?

Worried and Anxious,

not sure if this applies to me. i’m not offended.

i feel some caution. in christian church culture, i observe many problems with the application of the concept of ‘grace’.

it is a powerful tool and weapon in the hands of a narcissist to manipulate others get his/her own way

-creating in-groups and out-groups
-using a person’s faith against them (tricking them)

for those with more benign intentions:

-a mindless application at the expense of accountability
-a tool for superiority / inferiority
-a subconscious means for self-congratulations & looking down on others
-one that favors the perpetrator and disappearing the person/people harmed

my impression is that none of these apply to you.

due to my own experience with entitled narcissistic pastors (& the damage that leaves indelible deep scar tissue), i prefer a matter of fact response in these situations.

in addition, i was expressing my view that all forms of justice are worthy of not only intellectual affirmation but a good feeling.

it is the only reasonable response.

Eyewitness: I think it’s also fair to say someone is “narcissistic,” as a description of their character, not a personality disorder

Yes, one can have a personality quirk without having a disease. Both the American pulpit and pew are replete with such characters.

PSC was my home before I moved to anther state in 2021. I grew up in China, so maybe that is why I never really feel comfortable with Mark. To me, his preaching has always feel like using God’s word to prove his own point of view. This smells too much like the Chinese communists speeches. Thank you all for recording this. From all these record, the elder board acts like the tyranny of the majority. It must be so painful for the PSC current people. I am so sad Ray and Julian resigned. They are gifted leaders and preachers. They have done so much to the international community in U.S and overseas. They are loved by so many people around the world.

PSC member: Just want to mention that there is a small math error here. It’s 1.38% abstentions, not 0.01% abstentions.

Thanks so much!

dee: My first grand baby is on the way which means I’ll be spending a lot of time in Boston. We will have a meet, greet and hug in the near future, Lord willing.

Congratulations to your whole family! How wonderful!

And glad to hear that you will visit Boston again!

dee,

Congratulations !
If possible, would love to meet you and your grandbaby. Hope you will be available in July, after our vacation in June. If by that time ‘you-know-who’ has left, maybe can arrange infant baptism at PSC !

love and prayer from NAAH

Flying piggy,

Thank you for sharing this. IMHO the survivors at PSC would do well to consider encouraging Ray Kam to apply to be the senior minister. I know it would take a lot of encouragement, but IMHO it would be worth a shot.

I really don’t understand the resistance there has been at PSC, to hiring from within. There’s something to be said for long term experience with a congregation and its surrounding community.

And it’s strange that PSC has not yet taken diversity seriously enough, to seek out a person of color to apply to be senior minister. There are many highly qualified possible candidates.

janiceg,

Worried and Anxious, God‘s comfort to you. Please remember that God is in control, and it is God who changes hearts, so while our efforts are important, and getting our frustrations out here on this blog is helpful to us, it is God who truly knows the inner workings of Mark Booker’s heart and the Boards’. They can’t pull the wool over our eyes as easily anymore, and I hope that the congregation truly will put the pressure on to make Mark resign, but in terms of him and the elder board having a change of heart and being brought to a place of true repentance so that they can grow from this, that’s really only something God can do.

I don’t know if anyone has actually heard Dan‘s official opinion, but several people have told me that Dan is now working as a counselor at Grace Church in Lexington. So he didn’t just need to retire, IMO he indeed wanted to leave Park Street Church.

Eyewitness,

I encourage people to be careful about labeling people with psychiatric diagnoses. To say someone has the characteristics of (blank) is very different from saying “this person is a(blank.)” Even if you have an MD/PhD, if you are not that person’s doctor, then you cannot truly make an accurate diagnosis of that person because you don’t have a full picture of what’s going on. I have a bachelors degree in psychology, and one of my professors made the astute point that, “The most dangerous people out there are ‘armchair psychologists’ who have an ounce of information about psychology but are out there diagnosing everyone and trying to treat people with no clinical degree.” I have been in the position several times where I have had to request an intervention for friends or family members of mine, and it was because their health had so deteriorated and they became so unable to take care of themselves, that there was no question that something was wrong, but I never launched a diagnosis at or about them because I’m not qualified to do so. It’s truly an awful experience, and not something where someone should be lording a diagnosis over someone just to seem intelligent.

I know people love talking about narcissism today, honestly because narcissists tend to be fascinating creatures since they tend to be in the limelight and have a great deal of charisma and a commanding presence. Yet, as often as I’ve heard this term thrown around, it is not statistically possible for everyone that I’ve heard labeled a narcissist to be a narcissist. There are hundreds of diagnoses on the books, but right now the only thing you hear about is narcissism. It’s trendy right now.

Lastly, a good clinician submits to psychiatric analysis themselves so they can be aware of their own glitches before they begin identifying that of others. I guarantee that the armchair psychologists out there do not do so, because they are more interested in how intelligent they seem in analyzing someone else’s behavior, which really is a tool to deflect analysis away from them. Most of the armchair psychologists I’ve met have plenty of underlying issues of their own. It harkens to what Jesus said about caring for the plank in your own eye before helping someone with the splinter in theirs. Just a word of caution about applying labels. Stay humble. Suspecting that someone’s behavior is in line with a diagnosis is very different than distinctly stating, “This person is an X.” In one case, you’re behaving out of concern for that person and others, but in the other case you’re just being a judgmental gossip.

Jack,

Jack, I’m a bit more optimistic. I didn’t think we’d see the change in numbers that we did from the annual meeting to our latest special meeting. In the annual meeting only 33% would not affirm Mark. In the latest special meeting 55% not only don’t affirm him moving forward, but think that he’s biblically disqualified to minister based on the evidence. That’s huge. And the folks who attended the annual meeting are only a portion of the full membership.

For a time the congregation was asleep amidst a crisis. Most people just want to come to church, sing a few songs, listen to a good sermon and go home. This situation took a great investment, emotionally, intellectually, and in terms of time spent reviewing the issues. I think the average member just didn’t want to invest that, but now so many ministers’ and elders’ testimonies are finally coming out that confronting the issues can’t be avoided anymore.

I have confidence that now that the congregation has been made aware they understand the value of their involvement in the governance of this church. I can’t tell you how slow or fast change will happen, but I believe now that the congregation has had the wool removed from its eyes, change is already underway.

If Mark doesn’t resign on his own nor the elder board demand that he step down, there will be a huge backlash against them. If they insist on keeping him, the church will atrophy, because he’s already had the opportunity to correct his behavior when Michael called him out on his actions, and he did not. We have no reason to believe that he will change, and we have no assurance that he will not create strife and division even if he’s given a new team. He’s had more than three years to prove himself with a staff of gifted ministers, and we see that he destroyed that. There’s no question that his inability to collaborate and his poor leadership skills were at play.

If he does leave, and we’re able to exact some change within our elder board, this church will be able to refresh. There needs to be a reshuffling on the elder board because they stated themselves, they were aware of the situations going on with the various ministers whose written to testimonies we received last week, and now we know they did not take their complaints seriously enough. Hopefully, we can have at least some of our ministers that we lost return, and people who have left the church due to their frustrations with the church will return as well with the promise of a new beginning. We can reinvest in making the 4 PM service, the vivacious, spirited contemporary service that it was, and endeavor to do both the traditional and contemporary services well, casting a wide net to seekers in the interest of forwarding the great commission to the best of our ability, not to serve our own music preferences. We can endeavor to respect each other, in spite of our differences in styles of worship and political views. We can work to create diversity within our leadership staff, our nominating committee, our elder board and our ministry leaders, and yes, we will have to work intentionally to do so. God loves diversity, He created it, and He rejoices in seeing all of His people using their gifts and talents to serve Him, not just in a way that makes some comfortable, but in the way that God relegated those gifts. We are a church that respects that God‘s daughters have gifts to share with the church (as do people of other ethnicities and persons with disabilities) including gifts of leadership and sound Biblical wisdom. I know the church is not ready to accept a female senior minister at this time, but we do embrace women at all other levels: ministry leaders, deacons, elders, nominating committee, and even on the search committee for the senior minister itself. Mark’s biggest folly was that he was intent on exacting his agenda for our church based on who he is, and not caring who the congregation is, except for an influential few who like to throw their weight (and money) around. My hope is that those influential few are now running scared because they realize that the congregation has been awakened. This is no one person‘s church. This is God‘s church, and God caused this great shake up for a reason. It was a reckoning that was long overdue. I have faith that Park Street can rise from the ashes a stronger church, if they don’t settle back into their old ways and repeat the patterns that caused us to break in the first place.

My comments following the bruha at a significant distance;
*
Pastor Booker has to resign or be fired. If you can’t get 60% of the vote you have to step down.
*
Sadly; Park Street probably won’t recover – for a variety of reasons including the age of the church, the age of the membership and the cultural changes including increased secularization and the impact of the internet.
*
For reasons we probably cannot fully understand, all the chaos serves God’s ultimate purposes.

So the only thing PSC leaders are doing in response to the Special Meeting vote is holding “processing sessions” for the congregation to meet with Mark & the elders on June 7, 15, 20 & 25?

So Park Street Church needs “processing sessions” now? The latest spin / abuse in writing from the weekly newsletter:

Processing Sessions with Elders and Senior Minister
The Board of Elders and Mark invite you to join them for times of processing, for the congregation to share with them as we walk through these challenging months. They’ll be available the following times in the Granary Room:

Fri, Jun 7 | 6:15 PM
(preceding All-Church Prayer at 7:30 PM in the Welcome Center)
Sat, Jun 15 | 9:30 AM
(feel free to come at 8:30 AM to begin with 1 hour of All-Church Prayer on Zoom)
Thur, Jun 20 | 7 PM
Tue, Jun 25 | 7 PM

[Again tagging the Board of Elders here for the record as they are individually and legally responsible for this continuing abuse. The list is from the Park Street Church website as of June 5, 2024]

JASON ABRAHAM
Moderator
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

DEBORAH GALLAGHER
Clerk
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

GREGG HANSEN
Assistant Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

MARY HARVEY
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

LINDA HERMAN
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

RICHARD IBEKWE
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

GABRIEL LING
Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

DAVID MURGATROYD
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

GEOFFREY RAUX
Moderator-Elect
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

KIRSTIN PELTZ
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

DANIEL VOGELZANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

JOSHUA WANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

STEVE WEIBLEY
Elder
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIANNE WHITE
Missions Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

ANDREW ZIEGLER
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

Eyewitness,

Codependency ought to be recognised by everybody. If your religion bosses are codependent, make sure you’re not (and leave that religion). Simple.

The Ahab & Jezebel problem was codependency. I bet the APA (and the virtue signalling arm of the evangelical publishing industry) have never heard of codependency.

dee: I am quite concerned about these “processing” sessions. I do not recommend that anyone attend these unless surrounded by some simpatico friends. In other churches, these are “let’s lean on the members.”Be careful. I doubt these will be pleasant gatherings.

Hi Dee
Thank you sincerely for prompt advice about these ‘invitations to be ‘processed’ with the risk of getting ‘brainwashed’ by strange spirit(s). I will follow your advice to ignore the EVITE. I will look forward to meet you when you come to Boston to celebrate your first grand BUNDLE-OF-JOY.
love and prayer from NAAH

Headless Unicorn Guy: Sh*t like this is what made me allergic to Christianese.

As we all should be! This is like the doublespeak of a dystopian society… and a “forked tongue” in ancient literature.

dee: I am quite concerned about these “processing” sessions. I do not recommend that anyone attend these unless surrounded by some simpatico friends. In other churches, these are “let’s lean on the members.” Be careful. I doubt these will be pleasant gatherings.

I’m reminded of more double meanings and doublespeak. “Yes, we WILL process… we will process YOU into a compliant widget who dutifully brings their money to us!” <— fill in with the ‘abuse du jour’ and that’s pretty much what is going on.

Processing sessions = assimilation to my ways and views.

Or

A welcome session to explain their alternative universe where you are further abused for the good of the group.

Max: Good Lord!Is this thing ever going to end?!The congregation has already had two lengthy sessions to deal with the matter.What is left to “process” at this point?The majority of the congregation has spoken.Why prolong this agony for all parties concerned?Perhaps the congregation should consider getting outside assistance to rescue ‘their’ church from its leadership.

BRING IN GRACE!!!!!!

They don’t just do independent investigations. They also do Organizational Assessments. GRACE is the gold standard org for doing a thorough, transparent, deep dive into a troubled church, uncovering the layers of culture and factions, and making recommendations for the church to follow.

C’mon, elders. VOCA & the Vicinage Council just aren’t cutting it.

Elizabeth Klein: BRING IN GRACE!!!!!!

They don’t just do independent investigations. They also do Organizational Assessments. GRACE is the gold standard org for doing a thorough, transparent, deep dive into a troubled church, uncovering the layers of culture and factions, and making recommendations for the church to follow.

Agreed. But that’s exactly why some church leaders don’t want GRACE to look into things! They don’t want their “layer” to be exposed.

Elizabeth Klein: It sure takes Mark & the elders an awfully long time to say, “We don’t care what you think.”

He who has ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to PSC would have heard that from the get-go of this mess. Church leaders have made it very clear that this is not the congregational church members think it is.

I don’t mean to suggest we are capable of making a diagnosis. But there is a lot of evidence to suggest that Mark should be assessed in order to get him the help he needs.

If you’re still at PSC, you might want to wait a little longer to see if anything more comes of these “sessions.” But I’m not optimistic: you need to get out now, it’s not safe for anyone who has concerns. The leaders who are left are willing to destroy the church to follow this man’s delusions. Let them deal with the huge budget shortfalls and meager attendance. I’m sorry but I’m afraid this has stopped being a church and has become a cult centered around Mark.

Elizabeth Klein: This has the whole “time is your friend” vibe all over it

i.e. Stall Stall Stall until everything goes stale and everyone forgets and your accusers give up, then cue the Standing Ovation.

What I am finding very concerning is that as far as I can see there has been no acknowledgement or communication from PSC of the result of the vote taken at the Special meeting on Sunday. No email sent out to the members who could not attend and no mention of the special meeting at all in the invitation to processing It’s almost as if they are pretending it didn’t happen. Does anyone who is a member/was at the meeting know if the Clerk officially recorded the result?

KAJ:
What I am finding very concerning is that as far as I can see there has been no acknowledgement or communication from PSC of the result of the vote taken at the Special meeting on Sunday. No email sent out to the members who could not attend and no mention of the special meeting at all in the invitation to processing It’s almost as if they are pretending it didn’t happen. Does anyone who is a member/was at the meeting know if the Clerk officially recorded the result?

I honestly don’t know but I am seriously doubting it. The fact that they haven’t communicated it is unreal. I’m at the end of my rope with these folks because not publicly acknowledging it shows ZERO integrity!!!!!

Elizabeth Klein,

I suppose you’re right, but let’s hop to it before the we lose the entire congregation to other churches. I would even donate to a G.R.A.C.E. Investigation so we don’t have to tap our endowment fund once again. I know many others would be willing to do the same, including the gentleman who offered to underwrite $100,000 toward an independent investigation. Let’s get it done. We need to put pressure on this elder board to stop dragging their feet and face the music.

“You need a thorough, transparent & painful deep dive, and helpful recommendations – LOTS of them – from outside, trauma-informed, experts who really can diagnose abusive church systems, which is what PSC is.”
*
I’m sorry, at this stage that actually serves no purpose.

Max: Pat Chen
Andrew Swenson
Emma Nyquist
Robyn Bunch
Dan Verrengia
Kris Perkins
Kimberley Morrison
John Knight
Cindy Cutlip
Shannon Jacobs
Michael Balboni
Nick Dedeke
Yannick Assogba
Damian Long
Julian Linell
Pay Park
Tammy McLeod(?)
Tim Leary(?)

I think you may mean Raymond Kam and not “Pay Park”?
Also, you are missing one person: Bill Pearson.

Otherwise, the list of people who have resigned, been laid off, or fired on account of Mark Booker looks accurate.

Dee, thank you SO MUCH for your post.

The wording of the motion itself (with the photo) is very helpful, as is your post title. The majority of the congregation has voted NOT to affirm Mark Booker. The elders are stunned. They are just not getting it!

Thank you for providing the breakdown of votes, which the church has yet to announce publicly.

186 votes for Mark Booker = 42.86%
242 votes against Mark Booker = 55.76%
Nearly 56% of meeting participants believe Mark is disqualified for ministry!

One minor math correction – the number of abstentions is 6 (of 434 votes), which works out to be 1.38% – not 0.01% of the votes.

Remember the Dissenters,

That list was originally provided by a PSC member/commenter in another post … I am looking at this mess from the outside.

Max: A true pastor would not want to divide the church

Yes, that has been the point all along… Mark is not a true pastor. His intention is to divide the church as part of what he is quoted to have called “the great purge.” He is purging the ministerial staff, and ready to purge 56% of the congregation if necessary.

What is especially interesting to consider now is how 43% can still support a wolf even after being presented so many eye-witness testimonies? That is the nut that needs to be cracked.

NAAH: In the Peace of Christ,
The Board of Elders

https://www.parkstreet.org/about-us/elders/

Tagging the Board of Elders here for the record as they are individually and legally responsible for this abuse. The list is from the Park Street Church website as of June 7, 2024.

JASON ABRAHAM
Moderator
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

DEBORAH GALLAGHER
Clerk
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

GREGG HANSEN
Assistant Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

MARY HARVEY
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

LINDA HERMAN
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

RICHARD IBEKWE
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

GABRIEL LING
Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

DAVID MURGATROYD
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

GEOFFREY RAUX
Moderator-Elect
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

KIRSTIN PELTZ
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

DANIEL VOGELZANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

JOSHUA WANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

STEVE WEIBLEY
Elder
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIANNE WHITE
Missions Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

ANDREW ZIEGLER
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

N,

N,

Dear friends of PSC
I am just a lay member with no insider info, no official ‘responsibility’— but striving to faithfully hang to the True Vine, hoping the PSC branch will not be cut off .
That BoE letter is so long and redundant I did not waste time reading it thru— just read the first and last paragraph, then posted it for Dee and friends. Maybe Dee can professionally analyse it. I am simply too disgusted to read it again. Praying the Lord will help us discern His will how to respond with wisdom, grace and courage..

Points taken from the recent elder board letter letter from the Elders:
“There are those who seek to malign Mark with one sided stories. We could speak our side of the story to those testimonies release this past week (but we don’t want continue the arguments back-and-forth, for the sake of the church, essentially.) Yet, you had the opportunity to speak your side of the truth at the special meeting, did you not Elder Board? Whatever rebuttal you had, the congregation did not agree.

“Like many of you we all regret how Mark has been hurt in all of this.” Wha??? Flip the responsibility on the victims, will you? Turn the focus on how the perpetrator was hurt, will you?
These aren’t just examples of narcissism, it’s organizational narcissism. Mark Booker has become a god to them, I can’t believe that they seriously think they can pass this garbage off as truth!

“We really think it’s our fault, the elder board, because we’ve kept so silent. )Not that you haven’t received testimony upon testimony upon testimony of Mark’s poor behavior, including lying, attempting to coerce information from personal conversations between the ministers, deception, manipulation, withholding information from the congregation, trying multiple times to circumvent the congregational process to exact his agenda.) “Oh gosh, but we still think he’s a great minister and has the character to serve. We’re just going overlook that he destroyed the entire ministry staff with his behavior.”
Mark Booker, you flipping coward! Are you really going to let the elder board take the hit for your mistakes? No question that they were a party to these multiple accounts of abuses that we’ve seen in writing, but what kind of spineless creature gets the elder board to take the hit, and then let them try to sell you like you’re some kind of victim?

My God man, how do you sleep at night? If you cared at all for the health of this church, you would resign immediately, but that’s never been the case. How sickening.

Unbelievable.

It would be great if The Boston Globe published an article about the Special Meeting and how the BoE is handling it. Exposing Mark and the BoE to a much broader audience again will put so much more pressure on them that, hopefully, could lead them to take some accountability.

Date: June 7, 2024

Subject: Fwd: Reflections on the Special Meeting

https://mailchi.mp/parkstreet.org/message-from-the-board-of-elders-may-2512726

Wow! Just wow! This is so much worse than I had expected!

Also…. Welcome to TWW, abusive “elders” at Park Street Church… it’s nice to know you are here reading all of this! As people Google your names, they will find them here… so if you aren’t interested in being a party to this abuse… or if you are tired of the rumored “one voice policy”… do speak up!

Welcome to the Board of Elders, tagged here for the record as you are individually and legally responsible for this abusive letter. The list is from the Park Street Church website as of June 7, 2024.

JASON ABRAHAM
Moderator
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

DEBORAH GALLAGHER
Clerk
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

GREGG HANSEN
Assistant Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

MARY HARVEY
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

LINDA HERMAN
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

RICHARD IBEKWE
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

GABRIEL LING
Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

DAVID MURGATROYD
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

GEOFFREY RAUX
Moderator-Elect
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

KIRSTIN PELTZ
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

DANIEL VOGELZANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

JOSHUA WANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

STEVE WEIBLEY
Elder
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIANNE WHITE
Missions Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

ANDREW ZIEGLER
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

2 names removed at request of said persons. They claim they signed this in error.

Also, some of you might want to have your name removed from this list now that you have more evidence of Mark Booker’s abuse.

https://openletter.earth/an-open-letter-to-the-park-street-church-community-1bd3e2be?limit=0

Margaret Sloat, Stoneham
Heather Hutter, ASL Interpreter, Lynnfield
David Sloat, Stoneham
Heather Lewis, Reading
Elizabeth Lohnes, Melrose
P.H. Benjamin Lohnes, Consultant, Melrose
Janese Free Newell, Professor, Criminal Justice & Criminology, Boston
Sarah Richey, Nurse, Boston
Jamie Bush, Consulting, Bush & Company, Boston
SueBush, Hingham
Julianne White, Boston
Michael White, Boston
Brett Bone, Boston
William Richey, Boston
Mary Frances Giles, Southborough
JULIE HALVORSEN, North Easton
Hannah Schundler, Boston
Rosanna Verrengia, Retired, Wobirn
Chloe Verrengia
Jake Lubinski, Boxford
Sarah Fullerton, Boston
Dan Dawson
Emily Dawson
Acacia Abraham, Flower designer, N. Reading
John Free, Professor of Physics (retired), Boston
Catherine Choi, Boston
Laurel Sweeney, Consultant, Access Strategies LLC, Merrimac
Michele Choi, Boston
Karen Coley Christiansen, Retired Nursing Faculty, Boston
Gregory OBrien, Self employed, Lynnfield MA
Daniel Verrengia, Woburn
Emma Verrengia, Canton
Norman Graf, Retired, Marblehead
Meghan Holt, Charlestown
Amanda Cox, Consultant, Belmont
Maggie O’Brien, Teacher, Lynnfield
Sam Beverage, Peabody
Elizabeth Buckler, Boston
Jean Free, Teacher, retired, Boston
Ann-Marie Keltner, Boston
Myra Bruce, Wakefield
Amanda Ghilardi, Watertown
Jim Bruce, Lexington
David Bruce, Wakefield
Jennifer Collier, Watertown
Cosette Yungton, Hingham
Sabina Yungton, Hingham
Judy Engibous, Cambridge
Deborah Gallagher, University administrator (retired), Arlington
Jessica Kelley, Danvers
Jonathan VanderWoude, Music Teacher, Middleton
Lori Chang, , Watertown
Simon Chang, Senior IT Engineer, Harvard Medical School, Watertown
Sam Greydanus, Attorney, Bridgewater
Elisabeth Beverage, Stoneham
Jeff Lewis, Reading
Julie Boyd, Medford
anonymous
Lyford Beverage, Tewksbury
Bryan Robinson, Arlington
Sara Robinson, Arlington
Brian Hutter, Lynnfield
Phil Mell, Letter Carrier 02184, USPS, resident of Plymouth
Marana Avant, Brookline
Anna Koon, Artist, Jamaica Plain
Swaroop Pidakala, HR Professional, Malden public schools, Malden
Ruth Smith, Medford
Bhagya Gundugollu, Teacher, Malden Public Schools, Malden
Sheryl Cunningham, Needham
Joe Cunningham, Needham
Richard Elliott, Director of Facilities, Marietta
Peter Holt, Charlestown
Joan C. Lacey, Admin Assistant, Brookline
Kathy Weld, Dover
John Saunders, Boston
Barbara Carlson, Cambridge
John Carlson, Architect, Cambridge
Charles Gallagher, Data Analist, BDO USA, Arlington
John Chung, Former Minister to Missions
Laura Roscoe, Sourcing manager, Jamaica Plain
Brian Jones, Software Engineer, Retired, Manchester, MA
Frederica Jones, Retired, Manchester, MA
Brian Lacey, Attorney, Brookline
DEBRA MULLEY, Physician, Beverly Ma
Valerie Beaver, Newton
Rebecca Hansen, Beverly
Esther Gerendas, Wayland
anonymous
Ben Beaver, Newton
Brent Lacey, Brookline
Patricia Cooper, Homemaker, Harvard
Jonathan Verrengia
Mark halvorsen, Easton
Jimmy Hartono, Engineer, Wayland
Margaret Diffenderfer, Newton
Charles Peltz, prof. emeritus, roslindale
Anne Montague, Former Clerk
Eleanor Peltz, Boston
Jessica Ross, Dental Hygienist, Newton
Joseph Campanella, Cambridge
Gaby Campanella, Cambridge
Deborah S (Love) Fujimaki, Nurse, SEMI Sapporo NPO |Hokkaido, Japan, Nopporo Ebetsu
R Paul Johnson, Sw Engineer, Burlington
Robert rawnsley, Retired, Engineer, Melrose
Ellen Rawnsley, Pharmacist, Melrose
John Cissel, Boston
Amy Swint, Billerica
Reuel Swint, Billerica
elysia cooke, Concord
Colleen Forrest, Boston
Lyford Beverage III, Structural Engineer, Park Street Church, Dracut
Andrew Buckler, Boston
Joan T Leighton, Accountant, Joan Trumbull Leighton, CPA, Belmont
Diana Bennett, Minister
Julie Ling, Boston
Ben Swilling, Winchester
Ruthie Swilling, Winchester
Teresa Pregizer, Roxbury
Charles and Turid Larson, Needham, MA
Jennifer Oakley, Attorney, Imago Dei Fund, Hingham
Paul Oakley, Hingham
Nick Johnston, Helicopter Mechanic, Tewksbury
Herman J Smith Jr
Dorothy Saunders, Boston
Elaine Phillips, Retired Professor, GLOUCESTER
Stephen Christiansen, Physician, Boston University, Boston
susan touloukian, boston
Jennifer Lilley
Drew Cleveland, Brookline
Alex Johnston, RAWS Technician, Tampa
Hanna Gazda, Physician-scientist, Sutton
Irene Johnston, Tewksbury
Emily Freedman, Needham
Peter van der Meer, MD, Bedford
Cherry Choi, Boston
Philip Choi, Boston
Mia Chung-Yee, Professor/musician, Lincoln
Matthew Lenig, Charlestown
John Wendel, Attorney, Worcester
James Huse, Sr, Senior Management, retured, Hingham
Carol Huse, Boston
Jess Pulzetti, Winchester
Elizabeth Gallagher, RN/CCLS, Boston Children’s Hospital, Arlington
Jeffrey Collier, Watertown
Richard Camann
Bonnie Ziegler, Southborough
Patrick Freytag, Newton
Will Gerber, Attorney, Boston
John Yee, Lincoln
Charles Downing, Boxford
Abigail Downing, Boxford
Marty Lindemann, Retired, Walpole
Vilma E. Ortiz, MD, Physician, Boston
Megan Ibekwe, Cambridge
Paul Burke, Boston
David Rix, Burlington
Linda J. Yee, Retired, Park Street Church, Boston
Jim Huse, Hingham
Kristin Gerber, Attorney, Boston
Christian Briere, Malden
Laura Burnham, Boston
Evan Burnham, Boston
Anna Kandoyan
Lia Rix, Homemaker, Birth Year, Burlington
Jill VanderWoude, Middleton
Peter C Bennett, Retired, Plymouth
Ronald Barndt, Retired, West Newton
Wie Ja Shin, Canton
Christine Vasko, Wellesley
Betty Tyson, Watertown
Sarah Henry, PA-C, Wellesley
Jeff Lee, Boston
Chris Nichols, Retired, Arlington
Deb Weibley, Clinton
anonymous, Retired
David and Alex Cist, Winchester
Meredith Stewart, Boston
John Goempel, Tewksbury
Ellen Nichols, Educator, Arlington
Theodore Touloukian, Architect, Boston
Judy Dean, Professor, Medford
Josua Batubara, IT Specialist, Quincy
Jamie Chan, Boston
Irene Anderson, Nurse, Retired, Boston
Sam Ghilardi, Watertown
Diane Schmunk, Designer, Online attendee
Jim Schmunk, Executive Search, Attend online
Cameron Henry, Wellesley
Sandra L. Palmer, Retired, Rough and Ready, CA
John palmer, Retired engineer, Rough and Ready, CA
Sharon Postma, Mendon
Hugh Edward Rutledge, Project Manager, SAVVAS, Waltham
Penny Kulakowski, Chaplain/Nurse, Danvers
Elizabeth Beth Rutledge, Admin Assistant, The Arc of Massachusetts, Waltham
Wesley Ireland, Boston
Elizabeth Ireland, Boston
Jude R Kyambadde, Medford
Mark Lewis, Retired Law Enforcement, Online Attendee, Bayview, Idaho
Susan Brune, Bayview, Idaho
Elise Vasko, Wellesley
Ethlyn Ottley Greydanus, Pastor, Online particpants, Holland
Joshua Siewert, Consultant, Belmont
Ruth Siewert, Psychologist, Belmont

Sorry. My previous post was not very well stated. If a legal court rules that one of the ministers has been unfairly dismissed then Mark/the BOE would have to stop pretending that they are the victims and accept that they are being abusive.

I was at tonight’s meeting. I was sitting by j.h. I asked her who wrote the lenghty elders letter. She said all the elders did it. I warned everyone in the room that if Mark were to spiritually abuse someone else. Then the church could be sued and with the knowledge that they did nothing to stop when it first came out. I would like to thank the elder who comforted me by acknowledging that I was abused by a SP.

janiceg: spiritually abuse

Do you reckon Mark & the BoE know what that term means at this point? Do the Vicinage Council and CCCC recognize spiritual abuse as real? Seems to me that their prior “investigation” ignored the legitimacy of this form of abuse and delivered to the BoE what they wanted to hear. A truly independent investigation by an organization like GRACE would tell them differently.

Notice how in these communications the Elders cast (not in the right way) responsibility on themselves but NEVER Mark? In fact, the only time Mark has taken any responsibility was in that one sermon (of which was very generic). Mark does not believe he has actually done any wrong, and many around him agree. This church promotes unrepentant sinfulness.

Remember the Dissenters,

Thank you….this is very helpful.

A Former Member of PSC: At this point, those who continue to support / enable Mark Booker are just as guilty of the sins, of the destruction Mark Booker has done and is continuing to do.

“Do not hurry to lay hands on anyone ordaining and approving someone for ministry or an office in the church, or in reinstating expelled offenders, and thereby share in the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.” (1 Timothy 5:22)

Susan Lane,

Thank you, I am having powerful (invisible) help today. I never equated Christ, or Holy Spirit in my true peers, with the blood curdling shenanigans in all shapes and flavours I’ve continually been engulfed in – most of which I am determined not to detail, they are so grievous – and I also agree with Former Boston Girl to challenge “them” (tacitly) to act against you if you don’t volunteer / give (if you’ve got the nerve) (what if doctrine gets turned into lies though?)

Another thing that we can all recognise without exotic terminology: possessive.

If you have to stay, stay on your terms and not theirs.

I tried arriving at one of my churches after the badly amplified rock concert which entailed guessing my moment, and banging hard enough on a window to get someone to unlock the venue. I felt as comfortable being brazen as one might, but it often failed in practical terms. No-one noticed the atmosphere of enforced hysteria except me. Their small groups kept collapsing in nonsensical chaos.

At another fellowship, a headline coverup was the cloak for “miraculous” property fraud, which in turn was the decoy for another big ill. Eventually, one gets fed up with the hype and the loss of genuineness by one’s erstwhile pals.

Codependency is big in commerce, politics, and some families including non-religious ones. Evangelism that comes to terms with the world’s mighty in order to use material means (works of the flesh) to “influence”, was and is codependent, many years both before and after the 1990s.

I don’t do buzz phrases on purpose (except satirically), not being an essentialist. A thing doesn’t stop existing just because the chattering classes withdraw its profile.

A Former Member of PSC: I found Mark Booker to be extremely charismatic

With a touch of charisma, a gift of gab, and a working knowledge of the Bible, anyone can be a successful pastor in America, whether or not they are called by God to that sacred office. Churchgoers fall for it everytime.

Headless Unicorn Guy,

Since the ad hominem evangelicalism of J Stott and C Henry by its codependency and possessiveness, abolished intellect and prayer, it has spread its bad example into all fields through wedge driving, weaponising children against other children, bait and switch, illegitimising, passivity, outsourcing, abdication, enforced incompetence, warped business modelling, poverty, etc.

I have literaly invented my own religion without bosses, based solely on meanings of Holy Scripture, from fragments of insight encountered here or there and night cold sweats.

In childhood I had a balanced if dormant belief. This was added to in good or bad directions according to the whims of whom I was mixing with. Then the interlopers cemented their position under numerous identical ideologies.

The Elder/Oligarchs oppose the congregation, declaring: “We believe that Mark Booker has the character, gifts, and integrity to lead Park Street Church and should remain as our Senior Minister.”

“we have reached out to our Conference leadership and asked that the Vicinage Council be reconvened to render a final determination on the issue of Mark’s Biblical fitness”

No!, ‘the Conference’ is the Conservative CONGREGATIONAL Christian Conference; as such, the Vicinage Council has no business being the final determiner, its role is advisory only, to the congregation.

Jerome:
No!, ‘the Conference’ is the Conservative CONGREGATIONL Christian Conference; as such, the Vicinage Council has no business being the final determiner, its role is advisory only, to the congregation.

To the VC “Conservative” is more important that “Congregational.” To say that they will be reviewing new evidence is misleading. They already heard the testimony from ministers who resigned and Cindy and John. They didn’t have the testimonies of Kimberly and Kris but they will receive “contradictory evidence” and reaffirm their previous (terrible) decision. This is a middle finger to the congregation. Watch out next year at the Annual Meeting for bylaws to officially disenfranchise the congregation further.

NAAH: The Special Meeting was to review and possibly rescind a decision of the Board. The vote to affirm our decision failed.

The Special Meeting was to review and possibly rescind a decision of the Board. The vote to affirm our decision failed.

Note that they did not include the actual vote. There is also a difference in what they said the vote was about and what congregants posting here have said the vote was about.

What was the percentage that would have been needed for the motion to have succeeded?

dee: I said from the beginning that this was a church takeover, and it appears congregationalism is on the chopping block.

Within SBC, it’s quite common for New Calvinists taking over a traditional non-Calvinist church, by stealth and deception, for pastor/elders to keep going back for a vote until they get what they want. The first vote the NeoCals go for is to change a church from congregational governance to elder-rule in order to establish complete authority over the congregation. There appears to be some remnant of congregationalism at PSC which the elders would probably dearly love to see go.

Max: Does “Conservative” imply Calvinism as the underlying theology?

Don’t know for sure but the CCCC was established in the mid 1950’s by the Congregational churches who chose not to be part of the merger that created the United Church of Christ. I’ve always been told that they now view themselves as the “real” Congregationalists. Just an aside, the 4 C’s do ordain women and have been known to have at least one transgender pastor in their midst (early 2000’s). MB’s denomination is closing in on taking a vote to bar ordaining women.

Eyewitness: Service fee is a percentage of your gift.”

There shouldn’t be a quotation mark at the end of that sentence. Those are my words. The quoted sentence before is from the link.

Seeking Truth: So the only lesson the Elders took away from the Special Meeting is that they should have been more aggressive in defending Mark? Notice how they define their position as “the truth” while characterizing opposing perspectives with all the following words and phrases: “a campaign waged against us,” “false narrative,” “mischaracterized,””slandered,” “one-sided anecdotes,” “unsolicited email blasts,” “maligning,” “barrage of emails and testimony,” “expression of personal opinion,” and “conclusory accusations.”

Good Lord! Are there ‘any’ elders left on the PSC BoE who have any spiritual sense?! Has the lure of the inner ring and groupthink deafened them to the cries of multiple victims under Mr. Booker’s tenure?!

“If a donor makes a $50 donation to a US fundraiser, the individual receiving funds will receive $48.25 once transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30) are deducted.” Service fee is a percentage of your gift.”

Thanking you for clarification….
Wish to be sure: the service fee is mandatory, but tips is optional. Correct ?

The tip is on top of the service fee and goes to GFM.

https://support.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/articles/203604424-Learn-about-fees

NAAH:

Correct, one can opt out of the 18% GoFundMe tip.

Jerome,

“we have reached out to our Conference leadership and asked that the Vicinage Council be reconvened to render a final determination on the issue of Mark’s Biblical fitness”

No!, ‘the Conference’ is the Conservative CONGREGATIONAL Christian Conference; as such, the Vicinage Council has no business being the final determiner, its role is advisory only, to the congregation.
++++++++++++++

seems to me this is a legal matter.

legally, the Vicinage Council cannot render a final determination.

correct?

elastigirl,

If Mark is now credentialed by the 4C’s I believe the VC can revoke his credentialing. I don’t believe they can require the church to dismiss him. This is how it would work in the UCC.

Max: Does “Conservative” imply Calvinism as the underlying theology?

It implies “new reformed”. Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon or Wesley (non establishment) would, I think, view Arminius (two-fifths of the way through his honest logic reworking when he died of an illness) as a truer Calvin than Calvin (a politician and careless of logic).

“New evangelism” leaders since C Henry and J Stott, instead of spiritually ringfencing the incidental compromises of some classes (target the young or poor) as they should have known from Scripture that they were able – like Jesus and the prophets did by simple admonishment – have by their media power foisted their own devised complicity (works of flesh) on all the general public (to the extent wouldbe agnostics now have a fatally confused sense of sin).

This is why we should not allow religion bosses to veto our individual discretion as their (at least) equals. “New evangelicalism” by shutting up the heavens like brass and throwing away St Peter’s key, effectively invented artificial unintelligence by its enforced abdications (law of the Medes and the Persians). Kant, Barthes, Bergson and numerous others have commented how history, fashion and ideology proceed in waves that in real truth are not inevitably fixed to each other. It’s time to unravel the tonguetwisters of the takeover artists trapped in acting out the sole meme in their repertoire (which appears equally egregiously in non-protestant milieux). All kudos to the saucepan bangers at Park Street.

Housewife to cheapskate tinker: “Are you copper bottomin’em my man?”
Cheapskate tinker to housewife: “No, I’m aluminumin’em mum.”

Max,

Like when in the UK they blame a recent breath of fresh air opposition leader for the ills of a 1980s demagogue?

It looks like Squatter Mark’s strategy is to refuse to leave. With his previous tampering of the elder nominating process, and with the most recent elder resignations, none of the elders have chutzpa to stand up to him. Most of the Wolf Pack-Elders loyally love Squatter Mark. It is the blind protecting the blind.

Every effort to remove Squatter Mark will be blocked by the Misled-Clerk. The Misled-Clerk is blind to reality.

The Lion-Pride Vicinage Council has already ruled in Squatter Mark’s favor. “Truth has been discovered” they pridefully announced. What an idiotic statement. The Wolf Pack-Elders are going back to the Lion Pride Vicinage Council for a final decision, because the Pride has also become Squatter Mark’s protector.

Squatter Mark’s plan is simple: Hang on, refuse to leave, appeal to the Pride to roar, the Wolf Pack to howl, refuse any additional meetings. He is a Squatter par excellence.

Only a supermajority of the Sleepy-somewhat-Awakening People can remove Squatter Mark, which seems difficult to imagine happening at the moment. Will the People submit to the Pride and the Wolf Pack?

God can remove the Squatter at any moment. The Squatter received a stern warning last Labor Day weekend with his major bike accident. The Squatter obviously did not listen.

The Squatter, the Wolf Pack, and the Pride VS. Jesus Christ.

Lord, have mercy.

Watcher: Wolf Pack-Elders … Squatter Mark

Squatter? Nah, an alpha wolf in shepherd’s clothing.

Flying piggy,

I love your remark, it sounds so true in many circumstances. It resounds so deeply in me. The first Anglican had lot of scriptures reading with the liturgy and little preaching. Calvin and Puritan wanted long homilies and away with the liturgy (Ruth Magnusson Davis wrote about it). .I leave far away, not a member!

Elizabeth Klein: whatever happened to Mark humbly holding his call with an open hand?

it’s now a fist

I think it is time to take off the gloves of politeness.

Background:

From Luke 17:3 Ministries: https://luke173ministries.org/

“TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES: IF THY BROTHER TRESPASS AGAINST THEE, REBUKE HIM; AND IF HE REPENT, FORGIVE HIM…..Luke 17:3

Luke 17:3 is the scripture often misquoted, usually by an abuser or his Silent Partners, when he tells you that the Bible says ‘Forgive and Forget’, or that you must forgive him because you are a Christian. However, Jesus is very specific when He tells us to rebuke the sinner, and if he repents, to forgive him. Have you rebuked your abuser, and has he or she repented?

The Bible tells us to forgive as God forgave us (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13).God forgives us when we come to him, confess our sin, ask for forgiveness (apologize) and repent (turn from our sinful ways).( Ezekiel 33:10-19, Isaiah 55:6, Jeremiah 6:16 & 26:3, Luke 13:3 & 5, Acts 3:19). He does not forgive those who are ‘stiff-necked’, continue doing evil, or refuse to repent. The Lord does not expect more of us than he himself is willing to do! Do we imagine ourselves to be holier than God? God requires repentance, and so must we.”

—–

If Mark Booker truly loved the Church, was truly humble and repentant, he would have done the right thing last week–RESIGN. He has been rebuked numerous times. He has been rebuked by the congregation. He insists on remaining in the pulpit and continuing to damage the church in doing so by sowing more seeds of dissention.

What is a reprobate? Paul, in his letter to the Romans (Romans 1:28 and following) states:

“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Look at the qualities Mark Booker has exhibited: envy, strife, deceit, malace, malicious gossip / slander, insolent, arrogant and boastful, no understanding, no fidelity, no love and no mercy. One can easily argue that repeatedly saying one thing from the pulpit and then behaving in a diametrically opposite manner for someone who has above average theological training demonstrates God hating. One can easily argue that Mark Booker’s insistence on staying on as Senior Minister when continuing to do this is causing enormous strife and destruction of the church’s historic ministries qualifies as God Hating.

Mark Booker has demonstrated that he is a REPROBATE. He is Biblically unqualified to hold any sort of leadership role in the church.

—–

To the Deacons and Elders:

Do the right thing: RESIGN. If you continue to serve, you are tacitly supporting the reprobate Mark Booker and his enabling inner circle. If you continue in your position, you have demonstrated that you are Biblically unqualified to hold any leadership role within the church.

Draw up another Petition for a Special Meeting, circulate it, get it signed. It is clear that the congregation needs to remove the Board of Elders, Mark Booker, Nathaniel Skinner and maybe more.

—–

To all employees of Park Street Church–and that includes Park Street School:

Actively seek out employment elsewhere. Park Street Church is unstable. Many of you have family obligations and need the paycheck. Examine your heart. Can you knowingly work for abusive leaders? Can you knowingly work for cowardly leaders? If you are Christian, can you follow a reprobate?

Finding another, suitable job takes time, sometimes many, many months, to find suitable work. It’s not easy, even in the best of times. You’ll be spending many, many hours in your job search, from researching potential employers, communicating with them and interviews. You’ll be spending time on your job search that you probably would have spent with your family or doing something else you’d rather do. You’re going to dedicate your leave / time off to interviews… time you probably would have rather spent relaxing.

—–

To the remaining ministers at Park Street Church:

If you are of retirement age, RETIRE. It is the right thing to do. Should you decide to stay, you are enabling a reprobate–and are definitely NOT Biblically qualified to hold ANY leadership position in the church.

To those who are NOT of retirement age, TAKE A CALL. This is the right thing to do. We who love Park Street Church (whether we are current, former members or caring Christians), know that it takes time to connect with congregations looking for a minister. We know that it can take easily a year, from the time you realize that you need to take a call, to the time you finally leave. We understand that it is very difficult to uproot your family (as Kris Perkins did) in order to accept an out-of-town call. You might have to become a bi-vocational minister. We will be praying for you and for your ministry, wherever it takes you.

—-

To the missionaries receiving support from Park Street Church:

This must be a very difficult time for you. By now, you must realize that Park Street Church is in serious trouble. Donations are rapidly falling. Given what happened on June 2, you can reasonably expect that many more people will either stop or greatly reduce their financial support for Park Street Church. Park Street Church is now living off its seed corn. Accept that Park Street Church will likely have to reduce its support for missionaries. You will have to do more fundraising. It’s entirely possible that some missionaries will be forced to come home.

Do everything you can to distance yourself from the reprobate Mark Booker and his inner circle.

Save your ministry.

—–

To those who have engaged or have gotten their position in part due to nepotism:

This includes: Mark Booker’s friends that he put on the Board of Elders, a minister whose husband served as elder while the minister served Park Street Church, to the married couple who served as elders.

REPENT. Do not serve in ANY leadership position within Park Street Church. RESIGN IMMEDIATELY.

—–

To the Vicinage Council and to those in leadership within the 4Cs:

All of you are fine example of Churchianity, not Christianity. You are Quislings–cowards. Park Street Church is no longer congregational in polity; hence, is not qualified for membership. The Vicinage Council demonstrated that they are not Biblically Qualified to serve the church as an Elder. The VC REFUSED to comply with VC duties under Matthew 18. Numerous people accused Mark Booker of abuse–how dare the VC support an abuser! By failing to hold Mark Booker accountable, you are supporting the destruction of a once fine church. You are enabling a REPROBATE.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, a church (churches, networks of churches or denominations) is destroyed by REPROBATES in LEADERSHIP.

I’ve not yet finished reading the comments….

For posterity, I’m adding a comment to include a link to an Internet Archive copy I made of the link provided by Friend of Park Street Church of the June 7, 2024, Board of Elders email / letter, Reflections on the Special Meeting.

Friend of Park Street Church: Date: June 7, 2024

Subject: Fwd: Reflections on the Special Meeting

https://mailchi.mp/parkstreet.org/message-from-the-board-of-elders-may-2512726

Wow! Just wow! This is so much worse than I had expected!

Also…. Welcome to TWW, abusive “elders” at Park Street Church…. it’s nice to know you are here reading all of this! As people Google your names, they will find them here… so if you aren’t interested in being a party to this abuse… or if you are tired of the rumored “one voice policy”… do speak up!

Welcome to the Board of Elders, tagged here for the record as you are individually and legally responsible for this abusive letter. The list is from the Park Street Church website as of June 7, 2024.

Thank you, Friend of Park Street Church, for providing the link to the June 7, 2024, Board of Elders email / letter Reflections on the Special Meeting. 🙂

The Internet Archive link I made of the email / letter is below:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240610131144/https://mailchi.mp/parkstreet.org/message-from-the-board-of-elders-may-2512726

To keep my comment short 🙂 — and no offence to you intended, Friend of Park Street Church 🙂 — I’m intentionally omitting the list of the Board of Elders you tagged….readers can click on the link back your comment to read your list. 🙂

BTA: “While many have argued that this vote is indicative of the congregation’s view of Pastor Mark, it is more directly a view of the congregation’s lack of trust in the Board’s collective judgment.” Or, the people in Park Street church don’t know what they are talking about. “We know more about what they are thinking better than they do. They think they are upset with Mark. But we know that they are actually upset with us”. Is this rationalization or narcissism?

It’s gaslighting. It’s more abuse in writing…

By these “elders” …. who are no longer qualified to be named as such!

This list is from the Park Street Church website as of June 7, 2024.

JASON ABRAHAM
Moderator
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

DEBORAH GALLAGHER
Clerk
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

GREGG HANSEN
Assistant Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

MARY HARVEY
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

LINDA HERMAN
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

RICHARD IBEKWE
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

GABRIEL LING
Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

DAVID MURGATROYD
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

GEOFFREY RAUX
Moderator-Elect
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

KIRSTIN PELTZ
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

DANIEL VOGELZANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

JOSHUA WANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

STEVE WEIBLEY
Elder
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIANNE WHITE
Missions Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

ANDREW ZIEGLER
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

Also wanted to share this sermon here…

“The Problem of Guilt” by Timothy Keller, the late pastor in New York City.

Sin with a high hand or premeditated sin is what we are seeing by Mark Booker, Jason Abraham, and others. Park Street Church needs a Prophet Nathan, speaking by the Holy Spirit, to show each person their sin in a way they are refusing to accept right now!

We have seen your remorse (in Dr. Keller’s explanation) but you need repentance.

From the transcript:

“The Bible actually says, in a sense, until you repent, I have nothing to say to you. Until you repent, I have nothing to offer you. Until you repent, nothing else that I have to say to you will make any sense. Until you repent, nothing else that I can offer you will you be able to receive. Repent.”

[…]

“What the Bible says about your sinfulness can be misused. There’s a big difference between repentance and remorse. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul says, Godly sorrow over sin leads to deliverance and no regret.
But worldly sorrow over sin leads only unto death. Did you hear that? There’s two kinds of sorrow for sin. Godly sorrow over sin leads to freedom. See, deliverance, no regret. And there’s a worldly kind of sorrow that leads to death. And the difference between the two is the difference that I’m talking about. Repentance and worldly sorrow or remorse. Now, what is that difference? And here, let me show you. David gets right to it. If any of you have felt bad and guilty in the past, a lot of this language looks very common. It looks very familiar. Have mercy on me. Blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity. See, you’re feeling pure. You recognize all that, right? Don’t do that anyway. You recognize all of that, right? But look, suddenly David says something that brings us up short. It doesn’t look like anything we’ve ever said when we felt bad and guilty and impure. What does he say? Verse 4. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. And right away somebody says, What? What about the poor Uriah laying dead on the battlefield because of the treachery of David?
What about Bathsheba, ripped away from her husband? What do you mean you only sinned against thee, against God? What are you talking about? Ah, look, David is not denying the fact that he has violated those people. But what he’s actually saying is, I have discovered something profound about the nature of sin. And what he’s showing us is that this is very, very important to understand. This makes the difference, as I’ll show you in a minute, between remorse and repentance. What he discovered is that sin is not primarily the breaking of a law, but it is primarily, and first of all, an attack on the lawgiver and the creator. Let me show you what I mean.”

From Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life: The Problem of Guilt, 17 May 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timothy-keller-sermons-podcast-by-gospel-in-life/id352660924?i=1000655901848
This material may be protected by copyright.

Friend of Park Street Church: Also, some of you might want to have your name removed from this list now that you have more evidence of Mark Booker’s abuse.
https://openletter.earth/an-open-letter-to-the-park-street-church-community-1bd3e2be?limit=0

Did some legwork for those of you who now see this open letter in a new light…

Help Options
https://opencollective.com/help

Contact Open Collective
https://opencollective.com/contact

EW66,

i’m glad it was helpful.

since christian leaders and followers will trivialize & belittle one’s assertion of ‘church hurt’, i think we can call it what it is – toxic dysfunction.

elastigirl: i marvel at how otherwise intelligent & sincere people allow their conscience & common sense to be disabled by the persuasions of party line.

It’s largely a fear based religion.
Fear that if you (generic you) don’t sign on to what they teach, you are not going to ‘heaven’ in the end.
That’s how they hijack conscience and common sense.

PSC’s Elder/Oligarchs wrote: “we have reached out to our Conference leadership and asked that the Vicinage Council be reconvened to render a final determination on the issue of Mark’s Biblical fitness”

But according to Conference publications, a Vicinage Council should be composed of “experienced local pastors AND LAY PEOPLE” who “OFFER COUNSEL to a congregation in conflict”. “NOT TO DICTATE but to ask questions and prayerfully ADVISE”:

https://www.ccccusa.com/ministries/conference_care/biblical-peacemaking/

“we have learned the value of gathering a Vicinage Council of experienced local pastors AND LAY PEOPLE to evaluate, mediate, and OFFER COUNSEL to a congregation in conflict.”

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Vicinage-Councils-for-More-than-Ordination-.html?soid=1102213310097&aid=TLGB_RhHPPM

“Vicinage Councils…Our early history as Congregationalists is full of stories of churches seeking the wisdom of sister churches when facing difficult decisions or conflict. In these instances it was NOT TO DICTATE but to ask questions and prayerfully ADVISE.”

Muff Potter: Fear that if you (generic you) don’t sign on to what they teach, you are not going to ‘heaven’ in the end.

I have no desire to goto evangelical ‘heaven’ anyway.
Streets of gold and jewel encrusted vistas just ain’t my thing.

Max: “Woe to you, self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

Let’s use the original meaning of “hypocrite” so we can clarify the Christianese, going back to what the first-century listeners would have heard:
“Actors Strutting Onstage, Empty Celebrities without Substance…”

BTA:
Friend of Park Street Church,
213 people signed the letter of support for Mark in February and then 242 voted no confidence in June. What changed? The truth came out.

May I attempt retroactive analysis of that ‘OPEN’ letter and list of signatures
1) It was NOT open– but tightly CLOSED to the sender(s) and specific recipients selected by the sender(s) to request signature.
2) How do we know if other real people whose real names were added by the sender(s) to the published list of signatures, who might not have even SEEN that ‘open’ letter at all.
3) Did the ‘senders’ publicly show how each signature was verified ?
4) That process is online which is impossible for outsiders to verify.
It is not standing vote versus ballot vote—- at least you can easily see how many people are sitting or standing.

Observant Outsider: mountain biking … It does fit in with his toxic masculine energy

I bet PSC staff was thrilled when he was in the mountains, rather than expending his toxic masculine energy to intimidate, spiritually abuse, and fire them. Hopefully, he will have more time to bike soon.

Jerome:
PSC’s Elder/Oligarchs wrote: “we have reached out to our Conference leadership and asked that the Vicinage Council be reconvened to render a final determination on the issue of Mark’s Biblical fitness”

But according to Conference publications, a Vicinage Council should be composed of “experienced local pastors AND LAY PEOPLE” who “OFFER COUNSEL to a congregation in conflict”. “NOT TO DICTATE but to ask questions and prayerfully ADVISE”:

https://www.ccccusa.com/ministries/conference_care/biblical-peacemaking/

Great point, and thank you for referencing this CCCC document!

Yeah, so where are the lay people? Also, where is the Vicinage Council’s expertise on spiritual abuse or trauma-informed investigations and care??

Friend of Park Street Church: Processing Sessions with Elders and Senior Minister
The Board of Elders and Mark invite you to join them for times of processing, for the congregation to share with them as we walk through these challenging months. They’ll be available the following times in the Granary Room:
Fri, Jun 7 | 6:15 PM
(preceding All-Church Prayer at 7:30 PM in the Welcome Center)
Sat, Jun 15 | 9:30 AM
(feel free to come at 8:30 AM to begin with 1 hour of All-Church Prayer on Zoom)
Thur, Jun 20 | 7 PM
Tue, Jun 25 | 7 PM

Did any of you go to the first of the four abusive gaslighting sessions to be processed? There was one on the 7th and I’m wondering how it went.

The email sent from the elders discussing what they are going to do with the vote came at 602 (615 start) on 6/7 so J.H elder read it to us. The face expressions in the room said it all. I asked Mark if he was going to resign. He said no. and he will listen to what the holy spirit tells him. I said that the church is going to have greater problems if it does not investigate michael’s charge of spiritual abuse. Because when it happens again with a person associated some how with the church. THere going to have one hell of a lawsuit as the church knew it was allowing Mark to continue as sp. Two elders just sat in the room and did not say anything the entire time.

NAAH,

Please forgive me….

janiceg: The email sent from the elders discussing what they are going to do with the vote came at 602 (615 start) on 6/7 so J.H elder read it to us.

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

NAAH,

janiceg,

Former Boston Girl,

dear fellow pilgrims
We are always ready to forgive and be gorgiven– esp. me who never learned computer science except by trial and error after age 40. . I will try again to post 2 petitions (1) from saveourministers@gmail.com (will send do the change.org petition in next post)

May 9 2024

Dear Board of Elders and Personnel Committee,
We write to you with a heart of love and concern for our ministers. We strongly urge you not to fire the 5
ministers who expressed their concerns about leadership. Doing so would create more division and pain in
an already divided and hurting congregation. Please do not force out these faithful ministers:
1. Raymond Kam (Minister to Internationals), 8 years of service, 27 years calling PSC his home
church
2. Tim Leary (Director of Grad Student Ministries), 14 years of service, 18 years calling PSC his
home church
3. Julian Linnell (Minister of Missions), 10 years of service, 10 years calling PSC his home church
4. Damian Long (Minister of Community), 3 years of service as Minister, Midterm missionary since
2002-2009, PSC staff missionaries 2009-2020, Director of Cafe 2020-2021, and 27 years calling
PSC his home church
5. Tammy McLeod (Director of College Student Ministries), 25 years of service, 25 years calling
PSC her home church
Signed,
Members of Park Street Church
1. Violette Aftandilian
2. Lois Andersen
3. Bob Andersen
4. Erika Anderson
5. Anna Assogba
6. Tracy Balboni
7. Steve Barlow
8. Ronald Barndt
9. Millard Baublitz Jr.
10. Vera Benson
11. Melanie Bilazarian
12. Rob Bradley III
13. Norma Brunner
14. Carolyn Cain
15. Chun (Ivan) Chan
16. Jonathan Chang
17. Bailey Chang
18. Susan Chang
19. Gal Chaturantabut
20. Amy Chavarro
21. Jorge Chavarro
22. Ruth Chen
23. Grace Chen
24. Janice Cheng
25. Sijo Cherian
26. Elaine Choi
27. Jimmy Chu
28. Clara Chyen
29. Alisa Clark
30. Kacey Clark
31. Daniel Cogswell
32. Courtney Cogswell
33. Natalie Collins
34. Akiko Coram
35. Kevin Coram
36. Marilyn Cowan
37. James Craver
38. Peter Creath
39. Michael Creech
40. Carolyn Cummings
41. Cindy Cutlip
42. Pamela Daley
43. Jamie Dalton
44. D Gray Dalton
45. Caroline De Sola
46. David De Sola
47. Viva Decarvalho
48. Nick Dedeke
49. Hsuan DeLorme
50. R Stuart DeLorme
51. Patty Dery
52. Karen Dowie
53. Kaori Emery
54. Andrea Enzinger
55. Peter Enzinger
56. Jim Feenstra
57. Kristin Fehlauer
58. Daniel Fehlauer
59. Cindy Frechette
60. Anita Fritze
61. Ariel Fusaro
62. Yuyu Georgescauld
63. Bénédicte Gnangnon
64. Frankie Goon
65. Elisabeth McSherry
Green
66. Howard Green
67. Walter Hansen
68. Darlene Hansen
69. John Harutunian
70. Wenbo He
71. Linda Hemphill
72. Chenchen Hensz
73. Julia Ho
74. Alana Howland
75. Li-Li Hsiao
76. Kai-Ting Hu
77. Lisa Hui
78. Kevin (Miller) Hui
79. Nakyung Im
80. Alex Ip
81. Beena Jacob
82. Sophia Jeon
83. Shaji John
84. Irene Johnston
85. Tom Kane
86. Erik Kao
87. Evangeline Kennedy
88. Stephen Kim
89. Jooe Kim
90. Sue Kim
91. Kwang Soo Kim
92. Cathy Kim
93. Haesik Kim
94. Moo Kim
95. Eric Klawiter
96. Lora Knight
97. John Rogers Knight Jr.
98. Matthew Krushinsky
99. Chet Kunz III
100. Chet Kunz Jr.
101. Allen Lai
102. Susan Lane
103. Jim Layman
104. Helen Layman
105. Michael Le
106. Taylor Le
107. Eunjeong Lee
108. Eugene Lee
109. Leslie Lee
110. Vivian Lee
111. ChangHee Lee
112. Ye Jin Lee
113. Alexander LeePapastavros
114. David Lewis
115. John Lewis
116. Janet Lewis
117. Emily Lim
118. Ethan Liu
119. Marisa Liu
120. Hao Liu
121. Vicky Lo
122. Alice Loo
123. Jonathan Lorgunpai
124. Christine Lu
125. Saara Luna
126. Ruth Luna
127. Joel Luna
128. Mia Laki Luo
129. Raphael Martinez
130. Liz Martinez
131. Melanie Matthews
132. Theo MbakaMouyeme
133. Janice McGrail
134. Scott McGrail
135. Grant Means
136. Christina Michaud
137. Jurgen Michel
138. Liz Moore
139. Wynne Mun
140. Kudzai Mutembwa
141. David Newton
142. Matt Niblack
143. Esther Nimbalkar
144. Joseph Oliva
145. Yingshu Osborne
146. Jeff Osborne
147. Nick Papastavros
148. Joanna Parada
149. Karolyn Park
150. Raymond Park
151. Sang Park
152. Kimberly Pearson
153. Jason Peter
154. Jim Piper
155. Sarah Pisacich
156. David Pisacich
157. Doris Pratt
158. Teresa Pregizer
159. Ester Ramirez
160. Helen Rheem
161. Raul Rosales
162. Emily Sackmann
163. Sally Seaver
164. Irene Shaffer
165. Victor Sheen
166. Mark Shepard
167. Dustin Spicuzza
168. Sammi Sung
169. David Tam
170. Chun Pong (James)
Tam
171. Brittany Taylor
172. Timothy Tran
173. Betty Ann Tyson
174. Doug Vassos
175. Hope Vassos
176. Bob Vorce
177. Max Wang
178. Kai Wang
179. Sonya Wang
180. Sophie Sau Man Wang
181. Bill Wellman
182. Lynn Wenger
183. Erika Whitworth
184. Robin Whitworth
185. Brian Wilford
186. Paulina Wilford
187. Pebble Williams
188. Todd Williams
189. Elizabeth (Betsy)
Wiltshire
190. Brian Winey
191. Karen Winey
192. Janet Wolfe
193. Adelina Wu
194. Ming Yan
195. Bo Yan
196. Sze Zheng Yong
197. Mary Young
198. Mindelynn Young
Godbout
199. John Young Jr.
200. Jeong Yun
201. Dan Zhang
202. Maria Zhu
203. Sky Zhu
Previous Members, Regular Attenders, or Other Affiliates of Park Street Church
204. Benedetta Balboni
205. Edmund Balboni
206. Deborah Bliss
207. Matthew Breuer
208. Lake Bu
209. Emily Byrer
210. Caitlyn Diehl
211. Elaine Carroll
212. Matt Carroll
213. Ema Ciuca
214. Brett Clark
215. Liana Clark
216. Andrew Davenport
217. Kathleen Davenport
218. Ujjaini Desirazu
219. Andrew DeYoung
220. Christine Ding
221. Lauren Dukes
222. Patrick Dukes
223. Aloysio Fernandes
224. Kristen Filipic
225. Florian Georgescauld
226. Sean Godbout
227. Janice Graves
228. Rui Guo
229. Guy Hamilton
230. Catherine Harley
231. Mark Harley
232. Sarah Hart
233. Maeve Hedstrom
234. Jason Hennessey
235. Xindi Hennessey
236. Jonathan Ho
237. Grace Howard
238. Meg Howard
239. Tim Howard
240. Esther Hugenberger
241. Jane Hugenberger
242. William Jamara
243. Kristin Janz
244. Christina Jen
245. Tim Johnson
246. Nick Johnston
247. Beverly Kafkas
248. W. Mark Kafkas
249. Kevin Kang
250. Eddie Kim
251. Yuri Kim
252. Elizabeth Klein
253. Sean Kolva
254. Nora Laver
255. Anabelle League
256. Riley League
257. Ava Lee
258. Clement Li
259. Elliott Mason
260. Michael Mathes
261. Felix Matthews
262. Kristen Maynard
263. Laura McJilton
264. Connie Medak
265. Debra Morris
266. Dan Murphy
267. Georgia Murphy
268. Mallory Overton
269. Dee Parsons
270. Jeffrey Potts
271. David Saff
272. Alexander SauerBudge
273. Sheba Shadrach
274. Linda Shepard
275. Chris Sherwood
276. Charles Slagen
277. Dotty Slagen
278. Douglas Stuart
279. Gayle Stuart
280. Clare Sun
281. Stephen Tam
282. Jasmine Tan
283. Mauricio Tedeschi
284. Vivian Tsang
285. Carmen Tu
286. Kelechi Umoga
287. Rachel Utama
288. David Wilson
289. Sue Yoon
290. Martin Young
291. Steven Young
292. Jin Yu
293. En Ze Linda ZhongJohnson

Samuel Conner: the Spirit may be speaking through the group as well as to individuals. When there is disagreement between the group and an individual, regardless of how important or how high status that individual may be, that is grounds for pause. Perhaps it is the discordant individual who is out of step with the Spirit

I believe that is what we are seeing here. The Holy Spirit would not send a mixed message to the assembled believers at PSC. The recent congregational vote went contrary to the desired vote by Mr. Booker and the BoE … so who is hearing the Spirit regarding the matter at hand? Do church leaders believe that only they alone can hear God speaking? If the Holy Spirit can’t speak to and move through the congregation, then what’s the point of doing church? It’s arrogant to ignore the wishes of the congregation by telling them you are waiting to hear from the Holy Spirit instead … but, in Mr. Booker’s case, it has been shown that he has no shortage of arrogance.

Elizabeth Klein,
Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

Max:
Elizabeth Klein,
Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

Max,

Dear siblings in Christ
(1) If the organizer(s) and leaders of the ‘All Church Meeting’ are the same person(s) who wrote the recent official emails/announcements in relation to the VC report and the Special meeting, or the ‘Open Letter to the PSC Communiy’ (which we recently discussed), it would be difficult for me to sit still for one hour.
(2) Last month, upon reading the VC report announcing ‘the Devil has taken a foothold’ in PSC, I shudder to think where to stand when going to worship at PSC. Must look out for the hiding Devil. I am sure Susan Lane and the Five were not in that vicinity. Neither were Kris P, Pat C, Kim M or Mike B.—-these folks are no longer in PSC, BUT the Devil is still lurking here (according to the VC and the BoE).

O let me feel Thee near me, the world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me, around me and within;
But Jesus draw Thou near me, and shield my soul from sin.

I attended the Lanesvile Congregational Church in Gloucester for about 20 years, when Gordon Hugenberger was pastor. He was “headhunted” by Park Street in 1996 or so, because PSC at that time was deeply divided and saw in him the peacemaker they needed. Gordon was indeed a peacemaker.At Lanesville he managed to keep together a very diverse congregation–5-point Calvinists, charismatics, working-class, professional–you name it. I have noticed, in reading through these comments, that virtually everybody loves Gordon. It’s just so, so, sad to see what is happening at PSC now. (Also sad to see because I was a member of an ACNA church for a few years, but eventually ran back to the Episcopalians when I saw the more-conservative-than-I-bargained-for direction that ACNA was taking.

NAAH: the VC report announcing ‘the Devil has taken a foothold’ in PSC

Scripture says that which comes against ‘the’ Church falls in three categories: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I’ve witnessed the devil at work in various ministers and ministries during my long tenure of doing church in America. This ain’t it! What is going on at PSC is largely the work of the flesh … a clash of flesh over who is going to maintain power and control. If and when the right thing is done at PSC, the survivors need to gather in a solemn assembly to repent and pray about the days ahead for that once-great church.

Below is a letter submitted to the Elders by the petitioner group. I think they make a lot of good points here.

————————————————-

June 13, 2024

Dear Elders of Park Street Church,

We are writing in response to your “Reflections on the Special Meeting” letter to the congregation dated June 7, 2024. You wrote that you are praying for the congregation, and we are also praying for you. Christ is the head of the church and we write out of love for Christ and for his church of which you are a part.

Results of the Special Meeting

The Board’s letter did not announce the motion and vote taken at the Special Meeting, as it did following the votes at the Annual Meeting. Why? This is not transparent and does not give the congregation information to understand what happened at the meeting.

The motion made at the Special Meeting was: “I move to affirm the BoE decision of July 30, 2023 that there is no evidence of disqualifying sins, as described in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, of such severity that they call for the senior minister to be disqualified from pastoral ministry.” This motion was defeated. Of 428 votes cast, 56% (or 242 members) of the congregation voted no, we do not affirm the motion. 43% (186 members) voted yes, or we do affirm. And 1% (6 members) abstained from voting.

The clear plain meaning of that vote is that the congregation disagrees with the Board’s July 30 decision and believes that there is or may be evidence of disqualifying sins on the part of the Senior Minister.

Please do not attempt to remake the meaning of this vote into a generalized “congregation’s lack of trust in the Board’s collective judgment.” While it is true that the majority of the congregation has lost trust in the Board, it is a distortion to portray the vote as such.

Final authority in our congregational church lies under Christ with the congregation, to whom the Board of Elders is accountable. This is clearly stated in the By-laws of Park Street Church [link], which state, “The Board of Elders is responsible to the congregation. As such, its decisions are subject to review and modification at any duly convened business meeting of the congregation” (Art. IV, 1.A(ii)).

The Board has staunchly stood behind the Senior Minister, “linking arms” as has been expressed, despite the testimony of 8 elders and ministers expressing common themes of 1) deception, 2) lack of reconciliation, 3) lack of genuine repentance, specific apology, and restitution, 4) control of information, 5) unwillingness to accept feedback and differing opinions, 6) forcing decisions upon fellow ministers and the congregation, and 7) lack of compassion, empathy, and basic kindness.

A majority of the congregation does not agree with your stance. The congregation has rejected the Board’s determination that there is no evidence of disqualifying sins. Additional “processing sessions” are disingenuous because you have chosen not to listen to the congregation’s clear message on Sunday, June 2, 2024.

Requests Based on the Congregational Vote

The Board states that rebuilding trust with the congregation is a top priority. If this is the case, we pray you enact the following requests which are proper responses to the congregational vote.

Qualified, Truly Independent Investigation to build trust with the Congregation

This action has been requested by many congregants since October 2023. The congregation has concluded that there is or may be evidence of disqualifying sins on the part of the Senior Minister. The proper response is to commission a qualified, truly independent investigation by GRACE [link] of the abuse charges brought against the Senior Minister. The Vicinage Council is neither qualified nor truly independent (see below). What is the reason for refusing to take what is the obvious right step when an allegation of abuse is made within the church (let alone when multiple credible claims have been made regarding unacceptable behavior patterns by an individual in a power position who claims spiritual authority)?

Since the Board is confident of the Senior Minister’s character and integrity, why not submit to a truly independent investigation by experts to settle the issue and put the congregation’s concerns to rest? The Board’s continued deflection of the issue and avoidance of a truly independent investigation will only erode trust further.

If the Board had conducted a proper investigation following Michael’s 17-page memo of July 15, 2023, there would never have been a need for the public sharing of private testimonies; the Board is accountable for the necessity of public sharing and should not blame those with testimonies for following their consciences and speaking out after having been given no other choice.

An independent investigator would have access to whatever documents, people, committees, or lists they deem appropriate. The report would be presented to the Board and congregation while respecting the confidentiality of victims at same time, with no advance editing by the Board or anyone else, at another special meeting. The report should contain their recommendations so the congregation can vote on them.

When abuse was alleged against the former City Engagement Minister, the Board undertook a third-party investigation, with Mark’s full support [link]. There is no reason the Senior Minister should be treated differently. To treat the two cases differently is to use unequal weights and measures, which is an abomination to God (Prov 20:10, 23). We hope that you seek to lead the church in a godly manner in accordance with the Bible; please do not continue this unjust course of action.

The Senior Minister must go on leave of absence

It is not appropriate for the Senior Minister to preach or offer pastoral care while he has been accused of spiritual abuse and the majority of the congregation has voted that there is or may be evidence of disqualifying sins.

It is not appropriate for the Senior Minister to administer communion when he is not reconciled to many others (Matthew 5:23-24). We follow the Bible. Please honor the holy scriptures.

The Senior Minister falsely stated on his resume that he planted Church of the Cross, and he was presented improperly as a candidate to the congregation. To gain trust, he should publicly produce his Oxford diplomas and transcripts, which have been repeatedly requested.

The Senior Minister must not return to active ministry, nor is it good for him to do so, until all the above are resolved.

Ministers who have resigned should be invited to remain and be reinstated until the investigation is completed, with no more firings in the interim.

Why were Damian, Julian, and Ray’s final paychecks including vacations paid out on Monday, the day after the Special Meeting, without even a pause? Why were they further removed from staff meetings after service removal? Why did Mark and the personnel committee tell Tim Leary he can no longer go to staff meetings and must continue to keep silent? Did the Senior Minister and Board of Elders not take any time following the Special Meeting to be still before the Lord, to seek the Holy Spirit, and to reflect on their past decisions and what would be a godly and wise future course of action? Are the decisions that proceed from the Board of Elders of Park Street Church led by the Holy Spirit or by human wisdom?

If Mark and the Board are unwilling to invite these ministers to return while a further investigation is conducted, the Board is forcing its own will on the congregation, and will provide further evidence to the congregation that Mark, and now the Board, refuse to honor a fair process.

Limitations of the Vicinage Council

By its vote, the congregation rejected the Board’s determination and also that of the Vicinage Council. The Board’s letter portrays objections to the Vicinage Council’s credibility as “outcome-based.” This is untrue, and the Board knows it is untrue. Petitioners notified the Board of strong objections to the Vicinage Council process before the VC process began. That letter to the Board is linked and attached. (Petitioners had asked for a CCCC investigation in October, before it was known that Ron Hamilton, who headed the VC and selected its members, had a relationship with Mark and had advised him not to resign, exhibiting bias, and before there were widespread allegations of spiritual abuse beyond Michael, and even then expecting that qualified independent experts would be brought in.)

Returning this matter to the VC is a wholly unacceptable response to the congregation’s vote at the Special Meeting. Among other things:

The VC already rendered their decision and the congregation has said it disagrees. Therefore we should not go back to the same body. Please do not defy the congregation.

Despite asking the Board for a qualified independent investigation, the five ministers were told that they were expected to participate with the implication that non-participation could affect employment. During interviews, the VC stated the ministers’ actions were not under question yet subsequently referred to these ministers as “unethical” and “insubordinate” in their written report. Please do not subject them to this process again.

The VC process was inherently biased. Its chair, Ron Hamilton (who selected the other members of the VC) counseled Mark not to resign prior to being asked to conduct an investigation. It is unlikely that the VC chair would conclude that Mark was disqualified from pastoral ministry after previously counseling him not to resign. In the judicial system, an ethical judge must recuse him/herself from a case if he/she has any kind of relationship to the parties involved, particularly if they have already exhibited prejudgment on the matter at hand.

The VC is composed of past and present senior ministers, who will be inevitably sympathetic to the experience of a fellow senior minister. Inherent, unconscious bias is neither intentional nor an imputation of character. Humility requires that we do not deny bias which exists in all people, but instead strive to wisely recognize the various biases we each hold.

The VC lacks any individual with expertise in spiritual abuse investigation or psychology, and declined to modify its composition to add such a person. Moreover, in its very uninformed ruling, the VC has demonstrated its lack of understanding or expertise regarding spiritual abuse. In the VC’s report, it states the following as evidence of “conflicting” testimony to Michael’s charges: “Many testified that they have not witnessed or experienced aggressive behavior by Mark.” Abusers do not abuse everyone. If they did, it would be obvious to all. Rather, mistreatment is typically reserved for particular individuals, or sometimes even just one. The VC’s own report demonstrates its lack of the most rudimentary understanding of the dynamics of abuse.

The VC appears to judge not with biblical standards but worldly standards. Among other things, it states a significant opinion for which it offers no biblical basis that, “A newly called pastor should not be bound to work with staff that was hired by the previous pastor.” Jesus did not tell Peter this before he ascended to heaven. The foremost calling of a pastor, an undershepherd of Christ, is to love and care for the flock (John 21:15-17). Removal of all existing fellow ministers who know and love the congregation is not a way to care for the flock, nor is it a way to build trust. It also should not be needed for ministers of the gospel who live by the Book and are able and willing to reconcile. Our Senior Minister is in the power position and has the ability to create or destroy a climate of reconciliation, but has demonstrated a repeated pattern of inability or unwillingness to reconcile with others.

The VC has further lost credibility by failing to address whether “the Board’s process of determination was appropriate in the light of the severity of [the] charges [against the Senior Minister].” This was a critical issue that the VC was charged to review. Nowhere in its report does the VC address what the specific steps of the Board’s process were, or why those steps and omissions were just and appropriate.

There is no purpose in submitting “additional” testimonies to the VC as if they will be truly considered. Many of those testimonies were previously submitted to the VC, but the VC did not adequately weigh or even mention any of the testimonies in their report.

The outcome of turning this matter over to the VC once again is demonstrably predetermined. Please do not pursue this time-consuming, unwise, and unjust course of action, which will not be accepted by the congregation.

Accountability and Trust

The Senior Minister is accountable to the congregation. The Senior Minister has stated multiple times that he is “open handed” regarding his position as Senior Minister at PSC and that he wants to grow in accountability to the congregation. Genuine open-handedness and accountability would mean respecting the vote taken at the Special Meeting by stepping down from the pulpit and taking a leave of absence, and welcoming an independent investigation as has been repeatedly requested.

It is inappropriate to portray the prior reviews of the Senior Minister’s conduct by “three different bodies” as if a qualified, independent investigation has taken place. The congregation is aware of these reviews and a majority has rejected them. None of these reviews was a qualified, truly independent investigation.

Board subcommittee’s internal review. This was improper for many reasons, foremost among which is the subcommittee’s failure to call witnesses outside of Mark and Michael despite the existence of available, credible witnesses (former elders Leslie Liu, Nick Dedeke, and Yannick Assogba have testified regarding this unacceptable process). This was a violation of God’s standard of justice, as well as standards of justice established in our society. God has clearly established a rule of justice requiring two or three witnesses (Deut 17:6,19:5; Num 35:30; John 8:17; Matt 18:16; 2 Cor 13:1). Seeking witnesses is never the job of an individual reporting abuse; it is always the job of the reviewing body. God’s justice requires careful investigation by the leaders of a community for protection of both claimant and accused. Despite Michael’s plea to call other available, credible witnesses, the Board subcommittee inexplicably refused to call other witnesses and interviewed only Mark and Michael, creating one witness for each. The subcommittee proceeded to vindicate Mark and condemn Michael based on only one, arguably self-interested, witness. This violates God’s justice.

Additional reasons for the impropriety of the Board subcommittee’s review include, among other things: (1) inherent bias due to pre-existing relationships with Mark, who attends every Board meeting and works closely with the Board (opinions and impressions from pre-existing interactions create inevitable bias; unconscious bias is neither chosen nor intentional); (2) complete lack of understanding or expertise regarding abuse or its dynamics; (3) disparate treatment of the Senior Minister and the former City Engagement Minister when both were charged with spiritual abuse; (4) a process by which the full Board never heard from Michael and only from the subcommittee; and (5) the process was rushed and did not give the full Board time to adequately consider, discuss, and pray about the decision.

VOCA review. This was not an investigation and was never portrayed as one. VOCA stated that they are not qualified to assess the presence of spiritual abuse, although they then improperly commented that they did not find what they were unqualified to look for. VOCA is an organization focused on executive coaching and leadership development. Please do not insinuate that their organizational review was an investigation of abuse.

Vicinage Council. Their process and resulting report were improper due to bias, lack of qualifications, and the other reasons set forth above. Please do not pursue this time-consuming, unwise, and unjust course of action, which will not be accepted by the congregation.

Your letter states that reestablishing trust with the congregation is a top priority. If this is truly the case, please have the wisdom and humility to seek God’s wisdom and change your course. We desire that Christ will rule over and be glorified by Park Street Church. Like you, we long for a reconciled and united body at PSC. The way to achieve this is not by conducting another improper review by a well-meaning but unqualified, inherently biased council that lacks credibility with the majority of the congregation. We beseech you to take the steps outlined in the three requests above. Please make the decision to seek truth and pursue the justice God requires. This is the way to honor God and unite and heal our congregation.

To encourage a change in direction that leads towards our church’s healing, we request a response before Damian, Julian, and Ray’s resignations are final, no later than June 17, which is one day before Damian Long’s last day of employment at PSC.

Friend of Park Street Church: Final authority in our congregational church lies under Christ with the congregation, to whom the Board of Elders is accountable. This is clearly stated in the By-laws of Park Street Church [link], which state, “The Board of Elders is responsible to the congregation. As such, its decisions are subject to review and modification at any duly convened business meeting of the congregation” (Art. IV, 1.A(ii)).

Link: https://www.parkstreet.org/about-us/bylaws/

Friend of Park Street Church: When abuse was alleged against the former City Engagement Minister, the Board undertook a third-party investigation, with Mark’s full support [link]. There is no reason the Senior Minister should be treated differently. To treat the two cases differently is to use unequal weights and measures, which is an abomination to God (Prov 20:10, 23). We hope that you seek to lead the church in a godly manner in accordance with the Bible; please do not continue this unjust course of action.

Link: https://mailchi.mp/parkstreet.org/external-investigation-report

Letter from 47 people at Park Street Church to the Board of Elders
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(punctuation added as line holders and links embedded in this post)
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Date: June 13, 2024 at 1:44:39 PM EDT
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Subject: What was the actual vote count and motion at the special meeting?
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Dear brothers and sisters,
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As a PSC member who did not attend the special meeting on June 2nd, I found the Board’s omission of the specific motion and vote count in its recent letter puzzling.
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The following letter was sent today by concerned members of the congregation to the Board of Elders requesting action before Damian’s last day, June 18th.
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Let us pray for and seek truth and light at Park Street Church.
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Your brother in Christ,
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[name withheld for privacy]
PSC Member since 2004, attendee since 2000
Former member of Park Street Union leadership team
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June 13, 2024
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Dear Elders of Park Street Church,
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We are writing in response to your “Reflections on the Special Meeting” letter to the congregation dated June 7, 2024. You wrote that you are praying for the congregation, and we are also praying for you. Christ is the head of the church and we write out of love for Christ and for his church of which you are a part.
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[A] Results of the Special Meeting
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– The Board’s letter did not announce the motion and vote taken at the Special Meeting, as it did following the votes at the Annual Meeting. Why? This is not transparent and does not give the congregation information to understand what happened at the meeting.
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– The motion made at the Special Meeting was: “I move to affirm the BoE decision of July 30, 2023 that there is no evidence of disqualifying sins, as described in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, of such severity that they call for the senior minister to be disqualified from pastoral ministry.” This motion was defeated. Of 428 votes cast, 56% (or 242 members) of the congregation voted no, we do not affirm the motion. 43% (186 members) voted yes, or we do affirm. And 1% (6 members) abstained from voting.
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– The clear plain meaning of that vote is that the congregation disagrees with the Board’s July 30 decision and believes that there is or may be evidence of disqualifying sins on the part of the Senior Minister.
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– Please do not attempt to remake the meaning of this vote into a generalized “congregation’s lack of trust in the Board’s collective judgment.” While it is true that the majority of the congregation has lost trust in the Board, it is a distortion to portray the vote as such.
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Final authority in our congregational church lies under Christ with the congregation, to whom the Board of Elders is accountable. This is clearly stated in the By-laws of Park Street Church [link: https://www.parkstreet.org/about-us/bylaws/%5D, which state, “The Board of Elders is responsible to the congregation. As such, its decisions are subject to review and modification at any duly convened business meeting of the congregation” (Art. IV, 1.A(ii)).
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The Board has staunchly stood behind the Senior Minister, “linking arms” as has been expressed, despite the testimony of 8 elders and ministers expressing common themes of 1) deception, 2) lack of reconciliation, 3) lack of genuine repentance, specific apology, and restitution, 4) control of information, 5) unwillingness to accept feedback and differing opinions, 6) forcing decisions upon fellow ministers and the congregation, and 7) lack of compassion, empathy, and basic kindness.
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A majority of the congregation does not agree with your stance. The congregation has rejected the Board’s determination that there is no evidence of disqualifying sins. Additional “processing sessions” are disingenuous because you have chosen not to listen to the congregation’s clear message on Sunday, June 2, 2024.
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[B] Requests Based on the Congregational Vote
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The Board states that rebuilding trust with the congregation is a top priority. If this is the case, we pray you enact the following requests which are proper responses to the congregational vote.
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1. Qualified, Truly Independent Investigation to build trust with the Congregation
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– This action has been requested by many congregants since October 2023. The congregation has concluded that there is or may be evidence of disqualifying sins on the part of the Senior Minister. The proper response is to commission a qualified, truly independent investigation by GRACE [link: https://www.netgrace.org/independent-investigations%5D of the abuse charges brought against the Senior Minister. The Vicinage Council is neither qualified nor truly independent (see below). What is the reason for refusing to take what is the obvious right step when an allegation of abuse is made within the church (let alone when multiple credible claims have been made regarding unacceptable behavior patterns by an individual in a power position who claims spiritual authority)?
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– Since the Board is confident of the Senior Minister’s character and integrity, why not submit to a truly independent investigation by experts to settle the issue and put the congregation’s concerns to rest? The Board’s continued deflection of the issue and avoidance of a truly independent investigation will only erode trust further.
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– If the Board had conducted a proper investigation following Michael’s 17-page memo of July 15, 2023, there would never have been a need for the public sharing of private testimonies; the Board is accountable for the necessity of public sharing and should not blame those with testimonies for following their consciences and speaking out after having been given no other choice.
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– An independent investigator would have access to whatever documents, people, committees, or lists they deem appropriate. The report would be presented to the Board and congregation while respecting the confidentiality of victims at same time, with no advance editing by the Board or anyone else, at another special meeting. The report should contain their recommendations so the congregation can vote on them.
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– When abuse was alleged against the former City Engagement Minister, the Board undertook a third-party investigation, with Mark’s full support [link: https://mailchi.mp/parkstreet.org/external-investigation-report%5D. There is no reason the Senior Minister should be treated differently. To treat the two cases differently is to use unequal weights and measures, which is an abomination to God (Prov 20:10, 23). We hope that you seek to lead the church in a godly manner in accordance with the Bible; please do not continue this unjust course of action.
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2. The Senior Minister must go on leave of absence
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– It is not appropriate for the Senior Minister to preach or offer pastoral care while he has been accused of spiritual abuse and the majority of the congregation has voted that there is or may be evidence of disqualifying sins.
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– It is not appropriate for the Senior Minister to administer communion when he is not reconciled to many others (Matthew 5:23-24). We follow the Bible. Please honor the holy scriptures.
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– The Senior Minister falsely stated on his resume that he planted Church of the Cross, and he was presented improperly as a candidate to the congregation. To gain trust, he should publicly produce his Oxford diplomas and transcripts, which have been repeatedly requested.
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– The Senior Minister must not return to active ministry, nor is it good for him to do so, until all the above are resolved.
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3. Ministers who have resigned should be invited to remain and be reinstated until the investigation is completed, with no more firings in the interim.
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– Why were Damian, Julian, and Ray’s final paychecks including vacations paid out on Monday, the day after the Special Meeting, without even a pause? Why were they further removed from staff meetings after service removal? Why did Mark and the personnel committee tell Tim Leary he can no longer go to staff meetings and must continue to keep silent? Did the Senior Minister and Board of Elders not take any time following the Special Meeting to be still before the Lord, to seek the Holy Spirit, and to reflect on their past decisions and what would be a godly and wise future course of action? Are the decisions that proceed from the Board of Elders of Park Street Church led by the Holy Spirit or by human wisdom?
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– If Mark and the Board are unwilling to invite these ministers to return while a further investigation is conducted, the Board is forcing its own will on the congregation, and will provide further evidence to the congregation that Mark, and now the Board, refuse to honor a fair process.
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[C] Limitations of the Vicinage Council
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By its vote, the congregation rejected the Board’s determination and also that of the Vicinage Council. The Board’s letter portrays objections to the Vicinage Council’s credibility as “outcome-based.” This is untrue, and the Board knows it is untrue. Petitioners notified the Board of strong objections to the Vicinage Council process before the VC process began. That letter to the Board is linked [https://parkstreetpetition.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Petitioners-Statement-on-Vicinage-Council-03-22-2024.pdf] and attached. (Petitioners had asked for a CCCC investigation in October, before it was known that Ron Hamilton, who headed the VC and selected its members, had a relationship with Mark and had advised him not to resign, exhibiting bias, and before there were widespread allegations of spiritual abuse beyond Michael, and even then expecting that qualified independent experts would be brought in.)
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Returning this matter to the VC is a wholly unacceptable response to the congregation’s vote at the Special Meeting. Among other things:
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1. The VC already rendered their decision and the congregation has said it disagrees. Therefore we should not go back to the same body. Please do not defy the congregation.
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2. Despite asking the Board for a qualified independent investigation, the five ministers were told that they were expected to participate with the implication that non-participation could affect employment. During interviews, the VC stated the ministers’ actions were not under question yet subsequently referred to these ministers as “unethical” and “insubordinate” in their written report. Please do not subject them to this process again.
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3. The VC process was inherently biased. Its chair, Ron Hamilton (who selected the other members of the VC) counseled Mark not to resign prior to being asked to conduct an investigation. It is unlikely that the VC chair would conclude that Mark was disqualified from pastoral ministry after previously counseling him not to resign. In the judicial system, an ethical judge must recuse him/herself from a case if he/she has any kind of relationship to the parties involved, particularly if they have already exhibited prejudgment on the matter at hand.
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4. The VC is composed of past and present senior ministers, who will be inevitably sympathetic to the experience of a fellow senior minister. Inherent, unconscious bias is neither intentional nor an imputation of character. Humility requires that we do not deny bias which exists in all people, but instead strive to wisely recognize the various biases we each hold.
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5. The VC lacks any individual with expertise in spiritual abuse investigation or psychology, and declined to modify its composition to add such a person. Moreover, in its very uninformed ruling, the VC has demonstrated its lack of understanding or expertise regarding spiritual abuse. In the VC’s report, it states the following as evidence of “conflicting” testimony to Michael’s charges: “Many testified that they have not witnessed or experienced aggressive behavior by Mark.” Abusers do not abuse everyone. If they did, it would be obvious to all. Rather, mistreatment is typically reserved for particular individuals, or sometimes even just one. The VC’s own report demonstrates its lack of the most rudimentary understanding of the dynamics of abuse.
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6. The VC appears to judge not with biblical standards but worldly standards. Among other things, it states a significant opinion for which it offers no biblical basis that, “A newly called pastor should not be bound to work with staff that was hired by the previous pastor.” Jesus did not tell Peter this before he ascended to heaven. The foremost calling of a pastor, an undershepherd of Christ, is to love and care for the flock (John 21:15-17). Removal of all existing fellow ministers who know and love the congregation is not a way to care for the flock, nor is it a way to build trust. It also should not be needed for ministers of the gospel who live by the Book and are able and willing to reconcile. Our Senior Minister is in the power position and has the ability to create or destroy a climate of reconciliation, but has demonstrated a repeated pattern of inability or unwillingness to reconcile with others.
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7. The VC has further lost credibility by failing to address whether “the Board’s process of determination was appropriate in the light of the severity of [the] charges [against the Senior Minister].” This was a critical issue that the VC was charged to review. Nowhere in its report does the VC address what the specific steps of the Board’s process were, or why those steps and omissions were just and appropriate.
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8. There is no purpose in submitting “additional” testimonies to the VC as if they will be truly considered. Many of those testimonies were previously submitted to the VC, but the VC did not adequately weigh or even mention any of the testimonies in their report.
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9. The outcome of turning this matter over to the VC once again is demonstrably predetermined. Please do not pursue this time-consuming, unwise, and unjust course of action, which will not be accepted by the congregation.
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[D] Accountability and Trust
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The Senior Minister is accountable to the congregation. The Senior Minister has stated multiple times that he is “open handed” regarding his position as Senior Minister at PSC and that he wants to grow in accountability to the congregation. Genuine open-handedness and accountability would mean respecting the vote taken at the Special Meeting by stepping down from the pulpit and taking a leave of absence, and welcoming an independent investigation as has been repeatedly requested.
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It is inappropriate to portray the prior reviews of the Senior Minister’s conduct by “three different bodies” as if a qualified, independent investigation has taken place. The congregation is aware of these reviews and a majority has rejected them. None of these reviews was a qualified, truly independent investigation.
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– Board subcommittee’s internal review. This was improper for many reasons, foremost among which is the subcommittee’s failure to call witnesses outside of Mark and Michael despite the existence of available, credible witnesses (former elders Leslie Liu, Nick Dedeke, and Yannick Assogba have testified regarding this unacceptable process). This was a violation of God’s standard of justice, as well as standards of justice established in our society. God has clearly established a rule of justice requiring two or three witnesses (Deut 17:6,19:5; Num 35:30; John 8:17; Matt 18:16; 2 Cor 13:1). Seeking witnesses is never the job of an individual reporting abuse; it is always the job of the reviewing body. God’s justice requires careful investigation by the leaders of a community for protection of both claimant and accused. Despite Michael’s plea to call other available, credible witnesses, the Board subcommittee inexplicably refused to call other witnesses and interviewed only Mark and Michael, creating one witness for each. The subcommittee proceeded to vindicate Mark and condemn Michael based on only one, arguably self-interested, witness. This violates God’s justice.
. 

Additional reasons for the impropriety of the Board subcommittee’s review include, among other things: (1) inherent bias due to pre-existing relationships with Mark, who attends every Board meeting and works closely with the Board (opinions and impressions from pre-existing interactions create inevitable bias; unconscious bias is neither chosen nor intentional); (2) complete lack of understanding or expertise regarding abuse or its dynamics; (3) disparate treatment of the Senior Minister and the former City Engagement Minister when both were charged with spiritual abuse; (4) a process by which the full Board never heard from Michael and only from the subcommittee; and (5) the process was rushed and did not give the full Board time to adequately consider, discuss, and pray about the decision.
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– VOCA review. This was not an investigation and was never portrayed as one. VOCA stated that they are not qualified to assess the presence of spiritual abuse, although they then improperly commented that they did not find what they were unqualified to look for. VOCA is an organization focused on executive coaching and leadership development. Please do not insinuate that their organizational review was an investigation of abuse.
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– Vicinage Council. Their process and resulting report were improper due to bias, lack of qualifications, and the other reasons set forth above. Please do not pursue this time-consuming, unwise, and unjust course of action, which will not be accepted by the congregation.
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Your letter states that reestablishing trust with the congregation is a top priority. If this is truly the case, please have the wisdom and humility to seek God’s wisdom and change your course. We desire that Christ will rule over and be glorified by Park Street Church. Like you, we long for a reconciled and united body at PSC. The way to achieve this is not by conducting another improper review by a well-meaning but unqualified, inherently biased council that lacks credibility with the majority of the congregation. We beseech you to take the steps outlined in the three requests above. Please make the decision to seek truth and pursue the justice God requires. This is the way to honor God and unite and heal our congregation.
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To encourage a change in direction that leads towards our church’s healing, we request a response before Damian, Julian, and Ray’s resignations are final, no later than June 17, which is one day before Damian Long’s last day of employment at PSC.
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In Christ,
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[47 names]

More abusive gaslighting sessions announced:

Processing Sessions with Elders and Senior Minister
The Board of Elders and Mark invite you, the congregation, to join them for times of processing and to share with them as we walk through these challenging months. They’ll be available the following times:

Sun, Jun 16, 23, 30 | 9:45 AM | Fellowship Hall
Sat, Jun 15 | 9:30 AM | Granary Room
(feel free to come at 8:30 AM to begin with 1 hour of All-Church Prayer on Zoom)
Thu, Jun 20 | 7 PM | Granary Room
Tue, Jun 25 | 7 PM | Granary Room

janiceg: He should not be terminated because he has mental health disorder . A compassionate congregation of believers at Park Street should first seek mental health treatment for Mark. He is not his illness.

It depends on what the mental disorder is and whether the current workplace is a good fit for rehabilitation.

Think about an addict who works in a hospital dispensary where it’s easy to steal drugs or an alcoholic who works as a bartender. It would not be good for the addict, the alcoholic or their places of business for them to be left in their positions out of compassion for their addiction.

Power and admiration are the drugs of choice for people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Compassion would guide him into a position in which he could support his family without feeding his disorder. Leaving someone who has Narcissistic Personality Disorder in a position of both authority and the limelight (preaching) almost guarantees they would never change.

So in a church in which a pastor has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, for instance, a compassionate response could be to embrace him or her as a congregant, supporting the family as needed.

Friend of Park Street Church: Are any of you planning to attend any of these gaslighting sessions? I can’t decide if I’m ok attending, knowing it is going to mean more abuse… and in person…

The best thing would be to record the sessions, but you’d need to consult an attorney first to be sure you do it in a way that does not violate Massachusetts law since it appears to be a two-party consent state.

If you can’t do audio recordings, multiple people should go and take notes, capturing verbatim quotes.

Eyewitness: multiple people should go and take notes, capturing verbatim quotes.

Excellent idea! :o)

Eyewitness: However, the definition of “investigation” would need to be per GRACE policy. I wrote as a caution because I am aware of their policy from experience and would not want you to be disappointed. It may have changed recently or it may allow for an investigation given your circumstances. I am encouraging you to research it beforehand.

I’d like to hear more about your experiences. Did GRACE decline to conduct an investigation when asked?

They are not a substitute for a criminal investigation by law enforcement agencies and they make this very clear.

They do proactive assessments as well as investigations. Here is their current statement about what they do and don’t do.

https://www.netgrace.org/independent-investigations

The problem at Park Street Church is that an investigation needs to be requested by the elders or legal leaders of the organization… but Mark Booker and his sycophants on the board of elders won’t ask GRACE to investigate because they are aware they have done wrong. Outwardly they claim to be acting honestly and rightly, but if they truly believed that, they would welcome an independent investigation into their actions. Their refusal to be independently assessed reveals their fear of being exposed. If they were innocent they would welcome the opportunity to be exonerated.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20
[18] “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. [19] You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. [20] Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

Eyewitness: So in a church in which a pastor has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, for instance, a compassionate response could be to embrace him or her as a congregant, supporting the family as needed

… while putting someone else in the pulpit.

Max,

A dismissed pastor (for whatever reason) should not be allowed to remain in the congregation. Huge boundary issues at play. The church will never heal because his supporters will continue to treat him as their pastor. Mainline denominations have strict guidelines about this. Retired pastors are not allowed to stay, either, for the same boundary issues.

If any PSC member would like to ask GRACE if they can or cannot investigate Mark Booker, here’s the form where you can ask for more info:

https://grace.cliogrow.com/intake/abdb2faf316389d57aa807a879bcdfc9

GRACE offers a number of services: investigate present abuse allegations, investigate past abuse allegations, conduct a comprehensive culture assessment of your org, and review / form policies to prevent & respond to abuse.

PSC needs ALL of this.

In Pivot, Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer say that any abusive church system has to look into their past, not just the present. Look into how Jeff Schuliger got shoved in 2017. It was similar to how Kris Perkins got shoved, even before Mark Booker came around. Look into who knew about John Chung’s proclivities before he got arrested. Look into the Telios investigation into Kimberley Morrison, and the cultural factors that may play into going after a woman in church leadership.

Anyway, if GRACE is conflicted out of investigating Mark Booker, then anything Wade Mullen would do through Pellucid Consulting, would also be top of the line expertise.

Friend of Park Street Church: (punctuation added as line holders and links embedded in this post)

Friend of Park Street Church,

Thank you for for that. 🙂 And thank you, too, Observant Outsider, for your comment that included the letter. 🙂

For anyone clicking on the links in Friend of Park Street Church’s comment (and no offence to you intended, Friend of Park Street Church 🙂 ), you’ll likely get some kind of error message — all you need to do is delete the %5D from the end of the URL. 🙂

I’ve also made Internet Archive copies of all the links in Friend of Park Street Church’s comment.

For posterity, I’m including a link to the Internet Archive copy I made of the Park Street Church External Investigation Report….and for those who might be interested, there’s proof at the top of the report that Park Street Church used to be called Evangelical. Congregational. International.

janiceg,

janiceg,

The fact is, you can’t terminate someone for having a mental health disorder, but what you can do is establish whether or not they are capable of fulfilling the requirements of their job. Without even discussing any type of mental health disorder, I can tell you that Mark has not been successful in this position. Whether or not the CCCC says he has the right to garner a new team around him, the reality is, we’ve seen his leadership skills over the course of almost 4 years and they have decimated the ministry staff, and caused great distress among the board of elders and the congregation. He lacks the ability to work within a congregational framework, really refuses to do so, and he has poor collaborative ability. We have seen several inconsistencies in his statements to ministers and the church, have had many reports of him trying to glean confidential information from conversations between pastors, he has terminated people without cause, exacted disciplinary action on whistleblowers, resulting in huge financial losses, which we are attempting to cover with our endowment fund, A savings account for the church that should be untouchable. We are having to investigate multiple issues, also being funded from our endowment fund, especially since the elder board is being evasive about investigating the direct issues such as spiritual abuse, the things leading up to Michael’s termination, and even the circumstances surrounding Kimberly Morrison’s strange “spiritual abuse“ charge, where a company with whom Mark is connected with was paid church money in order to investigate claims against a female minister who had no prior complaints about her leadership, when he was confronted with a complaint from a longtime acquaintance of his. Huge conflict of interest here.

The simple point is, once again, the elder board cannot investigate the elder board. If the congregation is stating that we believe the five ministers, whom we have a long-standing relationships with, that they under-reported the severity of issues with Mark’s leadership based on VOCA report, stating that their initial investigation of Michael’s complaint was too soft because they didn’t reach out directly to any of the parties that were named as witnesses, then they need to humble themselves and submit to a real investigation. They can state that the bylaws prohibited them reaching out to individuals directly, but the point is, to do a proper investigation it needed to be done, therefore a third-party investigation had to be called in to do it, So they should’ve admitted their limitations instead of pretending that there were no real issues with Mark’s leadership. Clearly, the Vicenage council report, was too cursory to investigate Mark’s poor behavior and the boards complicity. They are not trained to identify spiritual abuse, even if they’ve encountered some of it in their experience. That’s not the same thing. They didn’t respond to anyone’s emails, so we have no idea if they had read anything that the congregants or others have had submitted to inform their opinion. There were key former ministers that they never reached out to, and Ron Hamilton himself would tell you he was familiar with Mark Booker before the investigation, and their investigation has no authority over Park Street Church. And what a ridiculous statement by the board of elders that we’re not accepting the vintage Council report because it didn’t validate our opinion, when clearly, they were unwilling to share the less flattering parts of the VOCA report because it didn’t align with their opinion. Who’s right?

Ron Hamilton told me when I called him a few months after Michael’s departure, was that, unlike what Mark Booker thought about the senior minister being a Director position, that the senior minister was indeed, accountable to the elder board, and the elder board and both were accountable to the congregation. “Ultimately,” he said, “the power in the congregational church lies in the polity.” Mark himself stated, when he came back from his bike accident to address the congregation about Michael‘s accusations, that he did avoid listening to other’s opinions and avoided seeking the insights of others for the sake of expediency. He apologized, but nothing changed. The VOCA firm established a method of reconciling with the ministry staff, that Mark and the elders agreed to, and then went back on their promise. Yet another example of deviousness, but they want to color it otherwise.

I will also say that there were two female elders, and Kim Morrison as well, who received intimidating, even threatening emails from people who did not believe females should be leading in a church. The elder who reported it to me stated that Mark did absolutely nothing. There was no swift reprimand of these congregants, nor was there any public renouncing of this behavior within the congregation. A responsible organization would have done so.

There are many more examples from the written statements, but the point is we have enough to terminate Mark at this point for his poor performance, but the elder board needs to get honest with itself. Right now they’re lying for Mark, and the fact that they’re trying to “defend Mark better“ shows that they know that Mark cannot speak for himself. Frankly that’s embarrassing. He had multiple hours at the special session to speak his piece and he either chose not to or didn’t do it well enough to convince the congregation. If he can’t defend his actions, that’s a real problem.

Anyway, IMO we shouldn’t even have to raise any issue of mental illness. His performance thus far has been poor enough to justify parting ways with him or at the very least demoting him, and finding a new senior minister.

Eyewitness,

Max: Eyewitness: So in a church in which a pastor has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, for instance, a compassionate response could be to embrace him or her as a congregant, supporting the family as needed

… while putting someone else in the pulpit.

Exactly.

BTA,

Agree 100%
Pastor Gordon is a scholar and a true pastor

Eyewitness: Leaders can be pressured to initiate an independent investigation, but the devil will be in the details and the congregation may not know the details until it’s too late–unless they have a representative in the meeting where the contract is negotiated and signed.

Such an excellent point!

However, I’d honestly be surprised if the scope of a GRACE investigation is negotiable… it seems like they would not agree to put their reputable name on an investigation that includes certain off-limits areas. “You can search the house, just not that cupboard under the stairs.” <—- Sounds like a good place to search thoroughly! Anyway, this would not be acceptable to professional investigators like those who work with GRACE.

Elizabeth Klein,

When did Kims leave?
When did Jeff S leave?
Perhaps it would be worth digging into the names of board of elders starting from 2016 at least….

Walter Kim was not chosen because they wanted a “star” preacher. In actuality, Walter was too “liberal” in the minds of the group now supporting Mark (i.e. his association with the 4 pm service). Ironically, Walter is now the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and has more acclaim than Gordon or Mark. The church split has been festering for some time, but Mark and his enablers are driving PSC into it full throttle.

Emily:
Elizabeth Klein,

When did Kims leave?
When did Jeff S leave?
Perhaps it would be worth digging into the names of board of elders starting from 2016 at least….

Walter (& Toni) Kim, and Jeff Schuliger, were all shoved in the spring of 2017.

At least, that’s when I first heard about it.

Elizabeth Klein: P.S. The Personnel Committee was as involved as the elders were, if not more so. That’s why I thought PSC’s bylaws were violated when Jeff S. was shoved.

The Personnel Committee took the initiative on getting rid of Jeff, and didn’t even want him to consult with the elders about whether or not he should go. However, PSC’s bylaws are clear: the elders are supposed to be the ones primarily responsible for the ministers. The Personnel Committee answers to the elders, not the other way around.

I was struck by how similar this was to Kris Perkins’ testimony in how he got shoved in 2021.

From Kris Perkins’ testimony:

“[Mark Booker] let me know that the Personnel Committee knew of this decision, but the Elders did not and if this became more widely known actions toward my termination would move quickly.”

This is EXACTLY what happened to Jeff Schuliger.

Here are PSC’s bylaws: https://www.parkstreet.org/about-us/bylaws/

So, why does the Personnel Committee think it’s at all appropriate to make staff minister decisions without the knowledge and approval of the elders??

Also, how well you do think PSC’s elders are doing at building “mentoring and SUPPORTIVE relationships with… ministerial staff for whom they are responsible” (PSC bylaws, Article IV.1.B)??

Elizabeth Klein,

Would be worth making this personnel committee and members publicly known for the last 10y!

Something I haven’t seen raised yet. The commenter “niemand,” on June 5, wrote a long summary of remarks made by the “affirm” side before the June 2 vote. I’m curious about the following:

niemand:
During the special meeting, which I attended, the “affirm” side used a variety of implicit/explicit reminders like (please bear with me):

[and the following was part of a lengthy list of reminders]
……………

* not affirming would in effect disqualify the senior minister not only from PSC but from any possibility of ministering in the US – so not affirming would be a grave mistake (who would judge?)

Now I wasn’t there, so I cannot say for sure whether this is accurate or who said it. Though it’s clear that the BOE would distance themselves from this sentiment now, it would be useful to know who suggested not affirming would disqualify Booker from the current job. And did the BOE counter this claim before the vote?

Clearly, they are now acting as if the vote was only some sort of referendum on trust in the board (an absurd claim, but whatever), but I’d be curious to know from anyone who attended the meeting how this was presented in the room.

NOTE: niemand’s full comment may be found here: https://thewartburgwatch.com/2024/06/03/a-majority-of-park-street-church-members-vote-against-affirming-mark-booker-as-senior-pastor-the-hot-potato-passes-to-the-stunned-elders/#comment-491362

PROVIDE FIVE FAMILIES WHO NEED DAILY BREAD TO SURVIVE — Some one mentioned that there was a go fund me page for the 5 ministers in an early post……

Did anynoe go 945 meeting with the elders and Mark today? what was said…was it well attended?

janiceg,

the paychecks of the FIVE will stop in < 1 week, because the SM and BoE remain powerful and disregard the 6/2/24 vote (whereas the SM will continue to get his paycheck by his own executive order)

I am copying the post by Eliz Klein on 6/9/24—as follows

There is now an opportunity to tangibly support them!

Thank you so very much, Ling Yi Liu, for organizing this GoFundMe effort: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-park-street-church-ministers-in-transition

simul justus et peccator,

Do you mean he keeps showing up in person? If so, of course, this adds to the system’s dysfunction. Former pastors, beloved or not, need to stay far away from their former pulpits. What is wrong with these people that they don’t know this.

simul justus et peccator,

Former Boston Girl,

Former Boston Girl,

This is absoiutely false information about Dr. Hugenberger–
I know he showed up only VERY RARELY since he retired from PSC
(1) for his good friend Kris Perkins’s farewell on a Sunday several years ago.
(2) in Feb 2924 in order to vote at the annual meeting as a PSC member
(3) on the Sunday recently when there was a reception for Walter Kim, his good friend
Neither he nor Phil Thorne can be blamed for the mess which Mark Booker and the current BoE produced at PSC since 2000.

sincerely, NAAH

MOD: Going to assume “Feb 2924” should have been “Feb 2024”.
GBTC

Located the following info via this URL on Jun 16, 2024:

https://parkstreet.churchcenter.com/pages/staff-elders-and-deacons

Personnel Committee
Jason Abraham, Moderator & Chair
Mark Booker, Senior Minister**
Kathie Lindemann, At-Large Member
Ling Yi Liu, Missions Treasurer
David Murgatroyd, Elder
Martha Neu, F&A Committee Representative
Margaret Sloat, At-Large Member
David Rix, Former Moderator
Mike Ahearn, Church Administrator**

**Employed by Park Street Church

Seeking Truth,

Hi Seeking Truth:
Based on Kris Perkins’ testimony from 6/2/24—
It is outrageous that Mark Booker repeatedly told Kris the reason for firing him (a 24 year faithful PSC minister) was Mark’s personal GUT FEELING (not inspired by Holy Spirit, not even legitimate per secular labor law). I have never heard of any employer using this reason to fire any employee. This alone disqualifies Mark from working as any business manager, let alone the sacred task of caring for PSC members as a good shepherd should.

BTW, Kris Perkins graciously swallowed this unjust treatment for 3 years and did not defend himself— leaving it to God’judgment. However, one week before 6/2/24, many congregants requested Kris to give his testimony in person. In keeping w/ his graceful nature, he requested Jason’s permission to attend the 6/2/24 meeting, but Jason refused his request. Therefore Kris wrote his testimony and sent it as an email to the congregation before 6/2/24— in order they will know what happened (secretly) to him in 2021.

If BoE decides to offer our SM mental health evaluation, why not also offer ‘gut’ or gastrointestinal evaluation ? This is more relevant than diverting attention to the personalities in the PC (personal committee).

NAAH: This is absoiutely false information about Dr. Hugenberger–
I know he showed up only VERY RARELY since he retired from PSC
(1) for his good friend Kris Perkins’s farewell on a Sunday several years ago.
(2) in Feb [2024] in order to vote at the annual meeting as a PSC member
(3) on the Sunday recently when there was a reception for Walter Kim, his good friend
Neither he nor Phil Thorne can be blamed for the mess which Mark Booker and the current BoE produced at PSC since 2000.
sincerely, NAAH

And THANK YOU for setting the record straight on Rev. Dr. Hugenberger’s involvement and presence at Park Street Church! I he is absolutely NOT part of the problem in this current and acute abuse crisis!
.
.

Seeking Truth: Without access even to the PC charter, the Elders relied on the Moderator and Senior Minister for all communications about extremely important personnel matters.

.
Has ANYONE gotten access to the Park Street Church charter? Members have a legal right to access it. If anyone here has access to it, could you please share it via Google Drive or DropBox or something similar? There used to be a webpage for it in the church website, but it was not available there. Later the page was removed as well. In light of the current crisis of abuse, I’m wondering what the leaders are hiding. The more work they put into hiding it, the greater attention they draw to it.
.
And since we now know Mark Booker himself or at least his sycophants are reading this blog…. (We see you!) … perhaps they can save some trouble by making the charter available before any savvy members get it by subpoena in discovery. Your move, Mark. Make it carefully.
.
.

NAAH: MOD: Going to assume “Feb 2924” should have been “Feb 2024”.
GBTC

.
Thank you so much for all your hard work, GBTC! The coding to quote and reply to comments is so very important and appreciated! I think I’ve finally figured out how to comment on multiple comments without making a big mess of your blog! :o)

Friend of Park Street Church,

I am just a lay member without training in theology, history, ethics, sociology etc. Sort of a first responder (not even an EMT) shocked to see the site of an MVA which nobody saw for a long time. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. After calling 911, the first thing I must do is to save lives and mend the wounds of those still alive, regardless of who is to blame

We are late responders, responding to the July 2023 trauma. At the least, the PSC budget must be used ASAP to continue the usual paychecks of the Five victims, so they can resume faithful PSC ministries ASAP for the Lord’s glory.

All other expenses such as the SM’s salary/package/medical expenses/paying VC again or getting GRACE etc—– may be discussed by more special meetings, committees and consultants or whoever for weeks and months or years. That’s beyond my weak comprehension, and not my duty as a lay member.

The first responder/EMT finds job satisfaction when he/she sees all live victims in hospital beds under the TLC of med and nursing providers … mission accomplished. Praise the Lord

Of course, the police, lawyers and insurance agents will do their duties and take their time for as long as needed. That’s not the EMT’s job.

Seeking Truth:
Seeking Truth,

The Personnel Committee seems to have exercised power far beyond what is granted to it in the Bylaws, and even the Board of Elders has expressed concern over its functions. The evidence comes from Board meeting minutes posted to the Petitioners’ website, covering meetings from March 2020 – July 2023: https://parkstreetpetition.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Appendix-B.pdf

… My conclusion from all this is that the PC has been operating outside the Bylaws and completely immune from Elder oversight, let alone congregational oversight. Its members are handpicked by the Moderator, its workings are mysterious even to longtime members and insiders, and it has been implicated in the improper termination of numerous ministers without having to account for its decisions to the congregation. A healthy church would immediately audit and eliminate such a secretive and unaccountable committee. Unfortunately, this is the entire culture of Park Street leadership today, so it will take a lot more than that to set things straight.

Absolutely, and that’s why it’s urgently important to have GRACE do an independent investigation AND thorough cultural assessment.

How did we get here??

To NAAH’s point: yes, Mark needs to go ASAP.

AND all the underlying symptoms that caused the current crisis have to be properly – and objectively – assessed. Otherwise your patient is only gonna keep on having heart attacks & winding up in the E.R.

The beauty of an independent investigation is that it is exactly that – independent. EVERYONE at PSC has visceral loyalties that keeps the truth & cultural complexities from discovery.

Elizabeth Klein,
Dee Parson

May I reiterate my consultation to all PSC supporters with legal expertise:
Based on church by-law and the 6/2/24 vote, does the congregation have authority to immediately retain/rehire all Five ministers?

(regardless of the lengthy discussion about the disqualified SM, regardless of GRACE which only the BoE can authorize to hire)

Friend of Park Street Church,

No problem, I’m a nerd and enjoy doing this kind of research. To your question about the current PC membership, your list is the most recent publicly available list I could find. But it has not been updated since the Annual Meeting, since Ling Yi Liu is no longer Missions Treasurer. It’s possible the membership is the same, but we have no way of knowing without confirmation from the Elders. Clearly they feel no urgent need to update the church on the membership of such an important committee.

NAAH, This is absoiutely false information about Dr. Hugenberger–
I know he showed up only VERY RARELY since he retired from PSC
(1) for his good friend Kris Perkins’s farewell on a Sunday several years ago.
(2) in Feb [2024] in order to vote at the annual meeting as a PSC member
(3) on the Sunday recently when there was a reception for Walter Kim, his good friend
Neither he nor Phil Thorne can be blamed for the mess which Mark Booker and the current BoE produced at PSC since 2000.
sincerely, NAAH

thank you for providing corrected info

NAAH:
Friend of Park Street Church,

I have personal experience: — a dear friend had MVA, car totaled but he was not hurt. The other car was wrong, and their insurance co. paid him to get a new car. 2 years later, the case was reviewed and brought to court again !

After any MVA-The insurance companies will take months/years to figure out /argue who should pay the medical bills or repairing the car— but the victims are bleeding or gasping for breath. They need help now to survive this heart attack (may not survive to get another heart attack later)

I’m not in medicine, so perhaps I used a bad analogy here.

The most relevant quote I can think of is here the sex abuse survivors’ lawyer, Mitch Garabedian, in the movie Spotlight:

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”

And PSC is an abusive village.

Yes, I totally agree with you that Mark has to go asap! His resignation should have been announced the Sunday following the June 2 Special Meeting.

That having been said, suppose Mark were to resign this very day from PSC.

Who then would be the most likely to grab that power vacuum, and continue wresting power from the congregation?

You’d still be left with elders who are fans of secretive, executive meetings & authoritarian control, who think that the petitioners & truth-tellers are basically doing the work of the devil, are to blame for the divisiveness within PSC, and are the ones who need to repent here. You have a Vicinage Council commissioned by the elders, with real cultural (if not actual) power that has only amplified this point of view, and whose final “investigative” report sure was a convenient pretext to get rid of The Park Street Five.

You’d still be left with a Personnel Committee that is very good at firing superb pastors, with little to no oversight.

You’d still have the Nominating Committee that publicly trashed 2 very good & faithful servants as “not best exemplifying the qualities” of the office they were nominated for, as if a degree of independence from Mark Booker were a biblically disqualifying sin.

You still have the sub-committee of Deacons that chooses the members of the Nominating Committee, and that clandestinely steered the “independent” investigation into Kimberley Morrison.

You’d still have a good portion of the congregation who are friends with people in the above leadership bodies, who insist on thinking the very best of their Senior Minister, and/or who are content to stick their heads in the sand and not get involved, while some traumatized Park Streeters who’ve spoken out at great cost already have one foot out the door.

Mark has stacked all of these leadership positions with his allies, who are enabling his control over PSC. Only let’s call it something else: top-down leadership style. And then push the submission message real hard with everyone else. Next step: after The Five are out, then the elders start using church discipline to get the rest of those rowdy congregants in line.

So that’s your abusive village.

Unless the culture of your church does a 180, you’ll wind up doing abuse whack-a-mole for years on end.

Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer say that it takes a church 7 years of very hard labor to turn a church culture around from toxic to healthy – and even that is only once a church’s leaders acknowledge that radical change has to take place. PSC’s leaders aren’t even there yet.

Maybe I’m on firmer ground using an analogy from my own line of work.

I’m a musician, and performance injuries in musicians are common, such as tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome. Some injuries are career-threatening, or career-ending, such as focal dystonia.

I’ve had colleagues who’ve had to take time off to recuperate from injuries, some of whom have needed multiple surgeries. If they don’t get these surgeries, then they can’t play. But if they don’t change how they play, then they will only continue to face the same career-threatening injuries, given time and using your muscles the same way.

It’s so hard for musicians to change their physical setup, because that affects sound production, which is their voice and such an immense part of their musical identity. I had a violist friend of mine who had to change her bow hold when she was in conservatory. She said it was like learning to walk all over again. Also, making massive playing changes is even more difficult, when you have the pressure of at least 3 performances a week.

Anyway, YES! PSC needs the surgery of Mark’s resignation asap. That is Step 1.

Step 2 is the whole church needs to relearn how to hold their “instrument,” Christ’s precious body, and how to walk again – how to walk with Jesus and let Him revolutionize their very idea of power in a cruciform, Kingdom way. In order to do that, the damaging ways that you’ve held your instrument have to be transparently faced, and painstakingly reworked. Otherwise, given time, your body is eventually going to keep on crying out in pain.

NAAH:
Elizabeth Klein,

… Their immediate plan is to REHIRE all the five ministers as soon as Mark is gone. meanwhile the Gofundme will support them — hope they will not be ‘grabbed’ by other churches! They are all wonderful hardworking and effective instruments of the Lord.
The elders who support Mark will probably resign if Mark leaves.

The Lord will lead us one step at a time.

Who is the “they” in “Their immediate plan is to REHIRE all the five ministers”?

The petitioners?

Anyway, sounds like a great plan to me!

Thank YOU for all your words here on TWW! They (and you) are surely ministering to people.

Elizabeth Klein,

Good comment. 🙂

Susan Lane,

Susan – I understand where you are coming from and respect your observations but I believe your comment is additional evidence for an independent investigation by a reputable and trained entity to come into the picture.

Many of us have personal experiences with the people you reference and my conclusions are contrary to some of your conclusions. I am not trained in investigations and am aware my personal friendships with these people cloud my conclusions.

All people involved must humble themselves and realize that either intentionally or unintentionally people have caused hurt. Some of it has been malicious and some of it has been because of well intended but uninformed understandings of power structures, abuse, trauma, etc.

Trained people need to come and teach us (Park Street) where we are wrong, where we have cognitive dissonance and how to both therapeutically and spiritually bring about healing.

Park Street is toxic and this environment started long before Mark and everyone should welcome the opportunity to discover how they were complicit in creating this environment – even Gordon Hugenberger.

Until then, conversations like these have the potential to create more hurt when what needs to happen is healing.

Again, I understand where you are coming from and respect your experience. But want to use this as an opportunity to say – Let’s get a truly independent investigation.

Elizabeth Klein,

Elizabeth, my point is that we don’t know the whole story and we don’t know whether or not she was exaggerating her side of it. You are presuming that she was completely truthful. I agree with you that an investigation into some of these issues even before Mark‘s time would be helpful, and in some cases, may even exonerate some of the people we’re pointing fingers at.

I’m just getting a bit tired of this. Not everything is abuse and not every abuse complaint is valid. People can have malicious motives for launching such accusations and as someone who suffers from authentic PTSD, I just want to say that just because someone yelled at you or was rude does not mean you were traumatized or abused in the clinical sense of the word. I get really tired about how these words are overused and how much hyperbole there can be surrounding them.

I guess I just need a break from the topic.

christine:
Susan Lane,

Susan – I think you need to own that according to your own description of your interpretation of what Chris explained to you – it is incriminating.

You stated this:

“it wasn’t just a counseling relationship. They had become friends and the lines between counselor and friend became blurred. Chris admitted that was a mistake and he never should’ve met with the woman off Church premises.”

If this is the case – it is a serious offense.

Here are the Massachusetts ethical codes and standards of conduct:

https://www.mass.gov/doc/262-cmr-8-ethical-codes-and-standards-of-conduct/download#:~:text=Licensees%20shall%20engage%20in%20relationships,%2C%20romantic%2C%20social%2C%20supervisory%20or

This clearly states:

“licensees shall not engage in romantic or sexual relationships or behaviors with clients, family members of their clients, or partners of their clients;”

If Chris crossed this boundary (as you say he admitted to) – it is a serious offense.

Also, imagine if Chris’ victim stumbled upon this forum. The comments you made could cause deep hurt.

Rather than making the comments you did – I believe it is more responsible to clearly state that Park Street Church has several instances like Chris Sherwood’s and because of this – we need an independent investigation by a reputable firm.

100%.

Susan, your PTSD matters.

And Chris’s victim’s trauma does, too.

But all you know here is Chris’s side. You like him and are loyal to him, so you naturally want to minimize his behavior as much as possible, insisting that what he did could not possibly have risen to the level of abuse without even knowing his victim, or having the objectivity to discern what really happened.

FWIW, Chris’s victim wasn’t even the one who made the initial report. If anything, she initially downplayed the damage he caused, and hadn’t even begun to face the weight of it back then.

I would hope that anyone deeply wounded by PSC these days by Mark Booker and PSC leadership would be VERY cautious about being blinded by loyalty, having experienced yourselves how deeply damaging that can be.

All the more reason to bring in an objective, 3rd party to investigate & adjudicate these matters.

In 2018, Boz Tchividjian was the person from GRACE whom the PSC consulted about Chris Sherwood. Before Boz founded GRACE, he was a sex crimes prosecutor in Florida.

I think he knows what abuse is, and what it is not.

mle bire:

I love these 2 recent quotes on the GRACE social pages – one from Boz and the other from a GRACE board member:

“It’s not a matter of if, but when, a church is faced with reports of [abuse] perpetrated by a member of their own community, whether it be pastoral staff, a volunteer, or a member of the congregation. How a faith institution confronts and responds to such a disclosure will not only have potential to save or destroy lives but will also speak volumes about whether it places the lives of individuals over the reputation and life of the institution.”
-Basyle J. Tchividjian, Founder of GRACE

“Becoming more trauma-informed is critical if we are to slow the exodus of survivors of abuse from our congregations, and provide pastoral care to the large number of parishioners and community members who are spiritually wounded as a result of trauma.”
-Victor Vieth, GRACE Board Member

Beautiful quotes. Thank you, mle bire.

I think there is an immense need for ALL churches, seminaries, Christian parachurch orgs & nonprofits to be thoroughly educated about abuse prevention & response, what best practices are, how to be trauma-informed, etc.

Vieth is totally correct about what he says about the exodus of survivors.

CT has reported that 1 in 10 Protestants under the age of 35 have left a church because sexual misconduct was handled badly (Kate Shellnut, 5/21/19).

Imagine the stats if you include those age 35 & above. Now imagine the stats if you include other forms of abuse, such as domestic violence, or spiritual abuse. Or the sexual abuse of adults by clergy that has been miscategorized as “affairs.”

PSC isn’t alone in not getting the problem and not following best practices in response.

I’m currently trying to get my own church to go through GRACE’s Safeguarding Initiative. One elder sarcastically commented that abuse is so rare, it’s like prepping for a meteor to hit your church.

If only that were the case!!

I think of Tenth Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Philadelphia. I went there from 1990 to 1994. It’s become a cesspool of abuse & abuse coverups. GRACE just published a 144-page report on Tenth Pres this past December.

The PCA, denom-wide, is a hot mess on abuse. At their General Assembly just this past week, they couldn’t even agree on the necessity of background checks, or letting non-Christians testify about their abuse in PCA courts. So you leave the Christian faith because of your abuse, and now because of that, we don’t want to hear about your abuse – because, didn’t you know? Anyone who doesn’t believe in God is a liar, so you must be lying!

I am not making this up.

I serve on the board of a nonprofit. This past December, the chair of our board was caught grooming teenage girls. (He immediately resigned.)

I think of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. On the Vicinage Council that’s compounded all the damage at PSC, you’ve got 1 GCTS faculty member, and another VC member who’s taught CCCC polity at GCTS. GCTS is training our next generation of pastors – many of them – and yet spiritual abuse & the best practices in responding to spiritual abuse, aren’t even recognized, much less practiced.

The fact that the VC insists they’re qualified to assess these matters, just makes it far worse.

Boz Tchividjian says he runs into this all the time, in all sorts of churches, from conservative to progressive: “I’m the man with the Bible; I know what to do.”

No, you don’t. Starting with that admission might be the very best gift you can give your church, when the rubber meets the road.

Do I think my own church has an abuse problem? No. But on the other hand, we just haven’t been tested yet.

And you’ve got to train a culture to respond BEFORE an allegation comes your way – because inevitably, you will not want to believe that such an allegation could possibly be true, or as damaging to a victim as it really is, when you really really really like the accused.

A petition for a special meeting to prevent the elders from returning to the VC has been submitted. People have also reached out to the VC members to ask them not to return for this fake investigation. Honestly, I don’t think it will make a difference how the VC will be involved, the remaining elders and church leaders are basically treating this vote as something to recover from and not to respond to faithfully or respectfully.

Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 at 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: The PSC congregation’s love for all of its ministers
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Dear brothers and sisters,
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To my sorrow, despite multiple entreaties from the congregation imploring the Board of Elders to treat all of its ministers with compassion, it has refused to act upon, respond to, or even acknowledge any of those requests.
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Most recently, forty-seven members requested that the Board rescind the resignations of Damian Long, Julian Linnell, and Ray Kam; to commission a truly independent investigation into their allegations; and to place the Senior Minister on leave until the investigation either confirms the allegations or exonerates him. There has been no response.
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The Board’s silence is especially troubling since the three ministers have departed without any due consideration of the public allegations of spiritual abuse against the Senior Minister. Damian’s last day was June 18th. Ray and Julian’s last day was today, June 21st. All three have left without any church-wide expression of gratitude, recognition, or announcement acknowledging their contributions over many years and the Congregation’s love for them. All three have already been erased from the church web site.
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Without any other recourse, 117 members of Park Street Church signed a petition (attached here) to review the Elders’ decision to return to the Vicinage Council in response to the congregation’s majority vote at the June 2nd special meeting rejecting their previous conclusions. The Vicinage Council were notified of this upcoming review and asked to halt any activities until the congregation – the final human authority of PSC – has a chance to deliberate.
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Let us follow our Lord and Savior first and foremost (Matthew 10:37), to obey His command to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34-35), and to humble ourselves in prayer for His church (James 1:6, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26).
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We are not our own; we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
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Your brother in Christ,
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[name withheld for privacy]
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Petition for a Special Meeting
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Pursuant to the provisions of the bylaws Article IV, Section 1, A., ii, “The Board of Elders is responsible to the congregation. As such, its decisions are subject to review and modification at any duly convened business meeting of the congregation”. Accordingly, we, the undersigned members of the Park Street Church Congregation, exercise our authority to convene a Special Meeting of the Congregation to be called forthwith in accordance with the provisions of Article VII, Section 3, C and D. The Petitioners sincerely believe that such a Special Meeting is in the best interest of the Church and will ultimately restore the harmony of the entire Church community.
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The Purpose of the Special Meeting is to review and possibly modify the following decision of the Board of Elders:
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The decision of the Board of Elders, as expressed in its June 7th, 2024 correspondence to the congregation, to send the issues involving the Senior Minister’s fitness to serve the church, once again, to the Vicinage Council of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC) for review. The Petitioners will seek other possible options from the congregation to ameliorate the current circumstances of our beloved church.
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Name:
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Signatures:

There is a mistake in this petition…

The following needs to be added:

The Senior Minister will be required to undergo a multi-day psychosocial evaluation, which will include scientifically validated psychological testing administered by an experienced clinical psychologist along with clinical interviews. The organization selected will be one that has extensive experience evaluating the fitness of pastors of churches experiencing similar difficulties as Park Street Church. The professionals involved in the evaluation must sign a conflict of interest statement. The Senior Minister will be placed on indefinite leave immediately, and remain on leave, until this report is made available to, and shared with, the congregation. Should the assessors express concerns regarding Mark Booker’s continued fitness to serve as Senior Minister, he will be placed on terminal leave and be offered a severance package consistent with what other pastors whom he terminated were given.

We are fortunate that Boston University does offer these services through The Albert & Jessie Danielson Institute–its Clergy Wellness Assessment Program. Link:https://www.bu.edu/danielsen/clinic/clergy-wellness-assessments/

Such a report will provide the congregation (as well as Board of Elders and personnel committee) vital information as to how to deal with Mark Booker.

As a victim of systematic abuse, many people do not believe that someone in authority is abusive unless they see it for themselves. My experience is that most abuse happens behind closed doors, where there are few, if any, witnesses. Even if there are witnesses, most will not step forward unless pressured. Should Mark Booker be found to be unwell, it will help members who have only intermittent, casual interactions with him, but who support him as Senior Minister, to realize that it is in the best interest of Park Street Church that he be terminated.

Friend of Park Street Church: Thank you for sharing this opinion!

Oops! This should be, “thanks for sharing this option!”

Are there still uniformed police officers at Park Street’s services?

The Board of Elders wants to make sure they get to gaslight as many people as possible… once you have attended one abusive “processing session” you need to let others attend to get their own mental health damaged. The “smaller setting” is especially effective in abusing people. “DON’T bring a friend; just come alone.” They don’t want you to have the opportunity to do any reality testing…. nevermind attempting to speak the truth during your gaslighting session.
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I’m shocked how much they tip their hand and show their tactics publicly. All these emails are perfectly ready to be evidence exhibits… no need for a subpoena, they have already disclosed their plans.
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Date: June 20, 2024
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Subject: Park Street eNews | THU, JUNE 20
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Processing Sessions with Elders
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The Board of Elders invite you, the congregation, to join them for times of processing and to share with them as we walk through these challenging months. If you have already attended one or more sessions, we ask that you not attend additional sessions so that more voices can participate in a smaller setting. If you would like to speak with an elder outside of these sessions, please email info@parkstreet.org and an elder will contact you.
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Sun, Jun 23 | 9:45 AM | Fellowship Hall
Thu, Jun 20 | 7 PM | Granary Room
Tue, Jun 25 | 7 PM | Granary Room
Sun, Jun 30 | 9:45 AM | Fellowship Hall
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[Tagging the Board of Elders here for the record as they are individually and legally responsible for this abuse.]

JASON ABRAHAM
Moderator
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

DEBORAH GALLAGHER
Clerk
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIE HALVORSEN
Elder
TERM: 2 YEARS (2026)

GREGG HANSEN
Assistant Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

MARY HARVEY
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

LINDA HERMAN
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

RICHARD IBEKWE
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

GABRIEL LING
Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

DAVID MURGATROYD
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2025)

GEOFFREY RAUX
Moderator-Elect
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

KIRSTIN PELTZ
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

DANIEL VOGELZANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

JOSHUA WANG
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2027)

STEVE WEIBLEY
Elder
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

JULIANNE WHITE
Missions Treasurer
TERM: 1 YEAR (2025)

ANDREW ZIEGLER
Elder
TERM: 3 YEARS (2026)

Friend of Park Street Church: Petition for a Special Meeting
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Pursuant to the provisions of the bylaws Article IV, Section 1, A., ii, “The Board of Elders is responsible to the congregation. As such, its decisions are subject to review and modification at any duly convened business meeting of the congregation”. Accordingly, we, the undersigned members of the Park Street Church Congregation, exercise our authority to convene a Special Meeting of the Congregation to be called forthwith in accordance with the provisions of Article VII, Section 3, C and D. The Petitioners sincerely believe that such a Special Meeting is in the best interest of the Church and will ultimately restore the harmony of the entire Church community.
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The Purpose of the Special Meeting is to review and possibly modify the following decision of the Board of Elders:
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The decision of the Board of Elders, as expressed in its June 7th, 2024 correspondence to the congregation, to send the issues involving the Senior Minister’s fitness to serve the church, once again, to the Vicinage Council of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC) for review. The Petitioners will seek other possible options from the congregation to ameliorate the current circumstances of our beloved church.
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Name:
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Signatures:

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How long does the clerk, the board of “elders” (they are disqualified to be actual Elders), and the CEO / non-pastor have to respond to the petition? Has anyone heard anything yet?
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Perhaps the Bylaws give a timeframe…?