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Disobedient Bishop Threatens To Uphold Discipline By Filing Charges Againt "The Six" CA Evangelicals

From: John Motz motzfam@elite.net
To: John Warrener jwarrene@surfsouth.com
Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2000 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: Six Saints in Captivity

Dear Brother John,

...We all got a faxed letter yesterday from Bishop Talbert requesting that we not send the letter out (he had a draft copy before him). But it was too late, the letters were already in the mail (and we would have mailed them anyway). Then the threat came, and this is good, "If you proceed to do what the letter implies, you will leave me with no choice but to see that complaints are filed against you. Your actions are a clear violation of the Book of Discipline." So we'll see what happens, our conference doesn't have a sterling record with the complaint process lately, but maybe we are turning over a new leaf and taking violations of the Book of Discipline more seriously now!

Again thanks, keep us in your prayers, and in the minds of believers everywhere. John

Dear Bishop Talbert,

Thank you for your letter informing us of your intent to file a complaint. We know you to be a man of conviction and are confident you will do what you feel you need to do. We are writing to clarify our motives and intent.

Please understand, we are taking action precisely because you and the Committee on Investigation have made clear that due process has broken down in our annual conference. Even more, we fear that the Western Jurisdictional structure has been corrupted by the same deception that has become the dominant ideology of our conference leadership.

Be assured, we appreciate the passion that drives you, the "Sacramento 68," and the conference leadership. You are convinced you are standing for God’s truth. However, as you know, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church disagrees and has consistently refused to compromise on "what has always and everywhere been believed" about the authority of Scripture and the practice of the church.

In your press release of February 11^th, you declared that "there is another more basic and fundamental covenant that has precedence over this one narrow focus of law." You have publicly affirmed the Committee on Investigation’s application of a higher authority than the Book of Discipline. How can we possibly apply to due process in light of your consistent challenge that has become operationalized in our conference structures?

Let us be clear. We are not withholding apportionments. We are expressing faithfulness to the spirit of connectionalism by delivering our apportionments to a third party escrow account until the crisis in our conference is resolved. We fully intend to deliver the apportionments once we are satisfied that our annual conference will recognize the full authority of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church or provide some other means for us to express our highest calling in Christ.

We await your next communication, and, please know, we are leading our churches in praying for all that is before us.

Sincerely,

Kyle Phillips John Motz John Sheppard Greg Smith Don Roulston

David Wainscott

cc. Loran Berck, Ronald Swisher, Bruce McSpadden, David Bennett, Vickie Healy, Thomas Kimball, Suk-Chong Yu, Ardith Allread, Ruth Cortez