The congregation’s first hint of Alan DeSilva’s departure came as an announcement in the bulletin in mid-February that he had been granted a three month sabbatical. The next week, at a Town Hall meeting held in a nearby church, conference personnel indicated to the Takoma Park members in attendance that he would not be coming back. This message was formally repeated to a meeting of the board of elders on February 26, 2013.
It seems that shortly after being granted the sabbatical
Alan DeSilva confessed to conference officials that he had been having an
affair with Takoma Park’s church secretary for the previous eight years, and
voluntarily surrendered his ministerial credentials. When questioned, the church secretary
confirmed that there had been an affair between her and Alan DeSilva.
Another matter of interest is the state of the church’s
finances. In addition to issues such as
the whereabouts of the unused insurance money from the steeple repair (see The Epic, Pt. 85 for a full description
of this and other financial issues), there has for some time been a suggestion
of regular thefts from the weekly loose offering collections. About the same time as Alan DeSilva’s
departure an auditor from the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS) was
called in to investigate the church’s total financial condition.
Takoma Park’s regular April business meeting was delayed
until May 5, 2013 at the request of the conference so they could come and
present the results of this investigation to the church. There were maybe 50 church members in
attendance. The Potomac Conference was
represented by John Cress, Ministerial Association Director for the conference.
The presentation of the financial investigation began with
the finance committee chairman explaining that for some time there had been
discrepancies between the amount of cash counted by the deacons on Sabbath
morning and the amount of cash recounted on Monday morning. He explained the precautions they had taken
to prevent the thefts, including locking the money in a safe in the church
center and taping the box sealed so that tampering would be evident. But it seems that come Monday morning they
would find the tape seal cut and money again missing. From this they concluded that the theft had
to be an inside job.
John Cress then read a prepared statement which said only that the GCAS audit had been completed, that the findings had been presented to the insurance company, and that they were deciding whether to reimburse Takoma Park for the loss. When pressed for more detail, such as whether there would be any prosecutions for the theft, Cress said that they “can” prosecute, but declined to answer whether they would do so. His responses to other questions were similarly vague. Many at the meeting had been expecting to be given specific results of the audit and were disappointed that the conference was not more forthcoming.
