An Open Letter

Regarding Recent Abuses of the GA Open Meeting Policy

To John Detterick, Executive Director, The General Assembly Council
and Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk, General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (USA)

From The Executive Committee of the Presbyterian Coalition

January 27, 2006

 

Dear Sirs:

We write to protest recent abuses of the General Assembly’s Open Meeting Policy. That policy, adopted by representatives of the whole church, recognizes the importance of openness of and access to the meetings of our denomination as essential to the health and well being of the church. The policy allows only specific exceptions. It requires committees and entities to state their reasons for closing, which must be limited to the exceptions provided for by the policy, and agreed to by majority vote prior to entering closed sessions.

We note a recent tendency to close meetings by providing insufficient and untimely information regarding the whereabouts of a meeting, by denial of access to a meeting without announcement and vote, and by refusal to make the papers under discussion available to members of the church and press who are present.

The church has placed its trust in you as our leaders responsible for carrying out the will of the General Assembly, to be vigilant in assuring that you and members of your staffs guarantee the openness of all meetings under your jurisdiction. Please uphold the spirit as well as the letter of the law on openness. We trust you to hold your staffs accountable for any breach of the Open Meeting Policy, and for these recent violations of the policy in particular (http://www.ird-renew.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKVLfMVIsG&b=1102913). We trust you to correct this harmful attitude and behavior and assure the church that it will not be repeated.

Please announce to the church that you are taking the necessary steps to assure that the Open Meeting Policy will be followed in accordance with its plain meaning in every place where your jurisdiction applies in our denomination. We believe, as we know you do, that openness of our process is basic to building an atmosphere of trust among Presbyterians.