The Epic, Pt. 46

The following announcement appeared in the Takoma Park bulletin on Sabbath morning, January 17, 2009, "The Church Ministry Board has completed their work on the Mission, Vision and Core Values statements. You should receive a copy before you leave today. Please review them carefully. Pastor DeSilva will be at church Wednesday, January 21st from 6:00 to 7:00 pm for any clarification you may have. Next Sabbath, January 24th during the service, we will take a vote without discussion."

Remember, on the previous Sabbath afternoon Pastor DeSilva had said that the "vision" would be discussed and voted on by the ministry board at its February meeting before being presented to the church for a vote. It is worth noting that the proposed meetings were only for "clarification," not objection or amendment. Also, Pastor DeSilva was once again choosing to schedule business decisions on Sabbath, just as he did with the vote to adopt the Borden Report and change our governance structure.

During the announcements that morning Pastor DeSilva stated that he had intended to distribute printed copies of his vision statement that morning, but in looking at the printed copies had noticed that they were "not the correct version," so he didn't want them distributed. They had, however, been made available to the people that attended first service. He also said that the vote might be postponed a week so that the corrections could be made and the corrected copies distributed but he wasn't quite sure how we were going to make it all work. At the end of his sermon that morning he read through the entire written vision statement, which was about four pages long.

When Pastor DeSilva concluded his reading he invited the congregation to bow their heads for prayer. He had only gotten as far as "Our Father" when he was interrupted by a member not associated with the Group who seemed to have objections to the vision statement. The man had risen from his seat and stood in front of the podium trying to make his point to Pastor DeSilva. Much of what the gentleman said was unintelligible in the audience, but one of the statements that could be made out was to the effect that the vision was Pastor DeSilva's, not God's.

Needless to say, this outburst during prayer brought a change in the mood of the service. Pastor DeSilva was trying to maintain his pastoral persona, but everyone could see his anger rising as he tried to quiet the man. His final exclamation of "Submit yourself!" silenced the gentleman long enough for the pastor to finish the prayer, but then the man started up again. At this Pastor DeSilva and the other gentleman on the platform came down and tried to physically calm the objector as Pastor DeSilva called for the closing hymn. The platform party was joined by the head elder, head deacon, and several others who tried to forcibly escort the man out of the sanctuary. The man turned his attention to the congregation, grabbed a hold of the back of the front pew, and continued to try to speak. Eventually the group of men overpowered him and he was led out of the sanctuary.

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Religious