Well, our complaints about recent actions by the IPC Session have finally been received, and Sarah and I are meeting with a committee from Heritage Presbytery one week from today (Dec. 4). Since the complaint has been received, and based on numerous statements from members of the Session, and from the Clerk of Session that the matter is public, we’re posting our cronological list of events over the past 5 months.

All the documents linked below are official correspondences between the Session and my family, and originals of all the documents have been saved.

Sarah and I think that there has been a lot gossip spread over this whole issue, and we don’t see it ending any time soon. Due to lack of clarity from the Session, we were never sure whether it was appropriate to discuss the issue publicly, but as I said before, now that the ambiguity has been resolved, we are comfortable publishing our information. Our goal is not to stir up trouble, but instead to show the facts to those who ought to know.

One other comment: There are a lot more words that passed back and forth between my family and members of the Session than what is documented here, but I have not posted them since there is no hard copy of those conversations, and my opinions would be so biased as to be useless to an observer.

• July 7, 2004 – Initial letter from Session. This letter came almost three weeks after the mentioned incident.
• July 8, 2004 – First response from Tom and Sarah to the above letter.
• July 9, 2004 – IPC Clerk of Session Jim Sauer’s response to Tom and Sarah’s above letter.
• July 9, 2004 – I wrote two responses to Jim’s letter, one unofficial, to Jim Sauer and one official letter to the session laying out my reasoning for not attending.
• July 11, 2004 – After much discussion between me and my wife, we decided that we would attend the session meeting voluntarily, as we could still see no compelling reason to attend. We invited two friends from church, Simon Tack and Mike Harnish to attend this session meeting, and notified the clerk of session that Sarah and I would attend, along with Simon and Mike.
• July 12, 2004 – Jim Sauer responded with an email saying that the session decided that Simon and Mike were not requested to be there. The two gentlemen decided to attend the meeting anyway.
• July 12, 2004 – At 8pm, the four of us showed up at the session meeting, where Pastor Wayne Brauning met us out front. He told Sarah and I to come into the meeting, and instructed Simon and Mike to stay outside. The session deliberated for 40 minutes, trying to figure out whether they were going to let Mike and Simon in the meeting. Finally, they decided not to let them, and Sarah and I left, as we said we would. Before we left, Ray Doreian read to us from a letter (Page 1, Page 2)
• July 13, 2004 – We received a followup letter from the Session, along with an excerpt from the minutes, as requested earlier. As Rob Miller has just been blessed with a big baby boy, I’m not sure how active he is going to be on this committee, or whether I’m going to hear anything from the either way. What amazes me is that the excerpts from the session minutes show that they session has already decided to “punish” me and Sarah. (EDIT:Here are the corrected minutes, including the much needed contextual information.
• July 16, 2004 – Since the letter from Jim Sauer raised more questions than it answered, I wrote back an email to the session requesting more information and clarification.
• July 20, 2004 – Finally received a short response back from Jim Sauer. I guess we’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, I’m composing a complaint to the session for their actions at the session meeting regarding Simon and Mike.
• July 27, 2004 – I receved an email from Jim Sauer today, with the Session’s full reply to my email from July 16. The gist is that Sarah and I have been formally removed from all “leadership” positions at IPC. Sarah has composed a letter to Jim Sauer, passing the Meals Ministry over to him. I’ve decided to send my complaint letter to the session.
• July 28, 2004 – Sarah wrote an email to Jim Sauer expressing her concerns over the ministries, especially the meals ministry, as there is currently a member in the church supposedly receiving meals. Later that afternoon, we received what I assume is the final letter from the session. I’m a bit surprised at their decision regarding my email list, but I’m not going to comply with their “instruction”. They have no authority to tell me to do anything regarding my list, although I am curious how they’ll announce this to the congregation. I guess it means we won’t be getting anymore information from the session members via the list, but that’s not any different than the current state. It’s odd that this letter came before the “called meeting on July 28th” mentioned in the July 20 email posted above.
• July 30, 2004 – I sent the complaint to the session regarding Simon and Mike’s exclusion from the session meeting.
• August 1, 2004 – Session publishes their notification as a bulletin supplement, without further explanation .
• August 12, 2004 – I sent the second complaint regarding session’s decision to censure me and Sarah.
• August 15, 2004 – After I left for Australia, Sarah received responses from the session regarding the two complaints. Here is the first in regard to open session meetings, and the second regarding the censure.
• September 12, 2004 – I sent a letter to Bruce Howes, Clerk of Heritage Presbytery, asking him whether he would accept an email with attachments as a complaint, or whether I need to send it to him via registered mail. He wrote back saying a normal letter is fine. I mailed the letter to him the next day.
• September 17, 2004 – Received another letter from Session today, “repeating” their request to remove the Immanuel name from my lists. No mention of ceasing to distribute information over the list.
• October 25, 2004 – Received a call from Wayne Brauning, saying that he and Jim Sauer wanted to sit down with Sarah and I before we left on our trip to Toyko to settle the issue before we left. I questioned why Ray Doreian wasn’t involved, since he had been appointed by the Session as a liason between us and them. Wayne said that Ray was really busy, and I told him that I didn’t think it would be appropriate to meet without Ray present. (Ray has been a great blessing to Sarah and I during this whole situation). Wayne said that he would call Ray and find out if he was available.
• October 26, 2004 – Wayne called that afternoon and said that Ray was available to meet with us, so Jim Sauer, Ray Doreian, and Wayne Brauning all showed up that evening. It was an interesting meeting, but from our perspective, nothing was really resolved. Jim did make a comment that there were outstanding minutes that were due to be sent to Sarah and I, that hadn’t been sent since they were not “approved”.
• November 26, 2004 – Returned home from Toyko, and hadn’t heard from Bruce Howes. I sent him a quick email requesting a status update. He wrote back that afternoon saying that the wheels were turning, and wondered whether Sarah and I could meet with a committee from Presbytery on Decemeber 4th. I wrote back saying that we would be availble for that meeting.
• November 28, 2004 – I met with Bruce Howes briefly after he preached at Immanuel, and he said that the December meeting wasn’t going to work. He later emailed us and sent a letter saying the meeting was scheduled for January 8, 2005. The meeting was then moved to January 15 due to a Presbytery conflict.
• December 30, 2004 – We received an unexpected letter from the Session today, where they requested that the Presbytery take over for them and assume responsibility. Where there is some provision for Presbytery assuming the responsibilities of a Session, it seems a rather drastic move.