To the 2019 Council of Aetna CRC:

Greetings.

It is now nearly three years since I sent a pair of letters to Aetna’s council. I have attached both for your information. The first letter, dated December 29, 2015, I left in the council room; the second was an e-mail, sent to council members on January 21, 2016. I later followed up with a third letter, an email sent on June 3, 2016. I posted all three, along with some context, on my blog at https://veritaspraebita.com/2016/04/12/exhibit-v-2/. This blog post also includes a personal note from me to 13, sent January 21, 2016.

In my first letter, I cited the council’s official reason for the termination of Pastor Templar, which, according to the letter sent to the congregation (December 17, 2015) was described as a difference between the “vision on the heart of the pastor for his ministry” and the “Council’s vision of what the congregation needed and hoped for.” I then asked the following:

If the council believes that “difference of vision” necessitates a change of pastoral leadership, why was the pastor not simply asked to take the next six months to find another call?

After three weeks I had received no reply, so I reiterated my request and asked for official, publishable answers to my questions. I wrote again in June because you still hadn’t replied to my communications, and I noted that the council ought to have at least acknowledged my requests. I then informed you of a blog I had started which documents events as they unfolded at Aetna 2015, along with the aftermath of my father’s termination. Aetna’s council was consistent: I received no acknowledgment of this message either.

Over the past three years, I have catalogued and commented on this drama on my blog, which runs to 170,000 words. If it were a book with line spacing of 1.5, it would be 453 pages long. I have also had a baby and finished my PhD. I have been a bit busy.

I am writing now because I finally have a free moment to ask you to send along my church membership paperwork, provided you can find it. As there is no CRC congregation here to receive it, I ask that you send it to the following:

Z— Evangelical Church

attn:

(address redacted)

United Kingdom

I also thought, since you now have an interim pastor, and thus perhaps a moment to take stock of Aetna’s ‘journey’ over the past three years, that it would be worth making an observation.

That is this: it does not seem to me that God has blessed the decision of Aetna’s 2015 council to hastily terminate, libel, and ostracize my father. Perhaps it would have been advisable to ask him to take another call after all, while Aetna in the meantime sought another full-time pastor?

If it was a mistake—and I assert it was a terrible one, which hurt my family, but probably more relevant to you, also hurt the church—will Aetna hold her 2015 council accountable?

Also, knowing what has transpired over the past three years, and what that mistake has done to my father’s health and career, might it not be wise (and biblically recommended) for Aetna’s leadership to take a step toward making things right?

I do hope you will prayerfully consider it. I also hope that you will interact with my concerns and, in particular, answer the question I raised three years ago: If the council believes that “difference of vision” necessitates a change of pastoral leadership, why was Pastor Simon Templar not simply asked to take the next six months to find another call?

ATM (ekklescake)