Liam Goligher has been suspended by Philadelphia Presbytery

Liam Goligher has refused to cooperate in church disciplinary proceedings, so the Philadelphia Presbytery of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) has suspended him. This means Goligher is forbidden from partaking in the sacraments and is suspended from his office.

However, since Goligher resigned from his position of Lead Pastor on December 1, 2023, I doubt that this formal “suspension from office” will sting him much.

Contumacy

The Presbytery have found Goligher guilty of contumacy. Dictionaries define contumacy as:

1. Obstinate or contemptuous resistance to authority; stubborn rebelliousness.
2. Stubborn perverseness; pertinacious resistance to authority.
3. A willful contempt of, and disobedience to, any lawful summons, or to the rules and orders of court, as a refusal to appear in court when legally summoned.

Anglican Watch reports [Internet Archive link]:

The Philadelphia Presbytery PCA announced on May 20, 2024, that adulterous perjurer Liam Goligher, former senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian, has been suspended indefinitely for contumacy. The latter is defined by the Presbyterian Church in America as refusing to cooperate in church disciplinary proceedings. …

Sources close to the matter tell Anglican Watch that if Goligher continues his refusal to cooperate, the Presbytery will have no choice but to excommunicate him.

Presbyterian Church courts usually grind slowly, and often fail to produce justice. But in this instance, they seem to have done one right act.

Since Liam Goligher is not cooperating with the church court process, I expect he will go on being be unrepentant of his adultery with Susan Elzey and of deceiving his congregants for years.

Whether the PCA will excommunicate him remains to be seen; read the comments in the Anglican Watch article for more info on the possibility of him being excommunicated.

I feel for Goligher’s wife … what she may be suffering. If you are reading this, Mrs Goligher, I hope my empathy gives you a tiny bit of comfort. I cannot know what you might be going through, other than it must be pretty awful.

Carroll Wynne’s resignation from Tenth Presbyterian Church

Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia has harboured a lot of corruption. One of the corrupt leaders, a fellow called Carroll Wynne, recently resigned: Update: Alleged child sex abuser Carroll Wynne resigns from Tenth Presbyterian [Internet Archive link].

Per the GRACE report [Internet Archive link]:

Carroll Wynne (“Wynne”) began attending Tenth in the 1980’s and served in the role of youth director from 1998 until 2009. In 2009, Wynne attained his current position as the Minister of Pastoral Care. Wynne has also served as an elder for Tenth throughout his tenure. As the Minister of Pastoral Care, Wynne’s responsibilities include shut-in and hospital visits, counseling intake, premarital counseling, and new membership courses.

I’m sharing here a few comments which people have made at the post Update: Alleged child sex abuser Carroll Wynne resigns from Tenth Presbyterian. [Internet Archive link]

Emma commented [Internet Archive link]:

Wynne has already been investigated, but now that he has “confessed” (however incomplete or euphemistic the confession may be) I expect that presbytery action will end here. As it did with Dan Herron and Scott Sauls, the offender’s confession stands as the official narrative. The victims are not given an opportunity to correct it or speak their version publicly while all is tied up in “executive session”.

There will likely be no formal suspension, no stripping of credentials, and most importantly, the full record of his misdeeds will be buried in the name of cheap grace, because after all he “confessed.” All the while Tenth and other churches like them continue to openly market to families with young children.

A commented [Internet Archive link]:

The Presbytery committee reportedly did not have access to the transcripts that were the basis for the GRACE report, nor did they know the identities of most of those who testified to GRACE. It seems the info in the reports was basically anonymous and second-hand, which was not enough to take action. Hence the investigation that ensued, seeking victim and witness testimony.

I (Barbara Roberts) wrote [Internet Archive link]:

Thanks A. 💛
This makes sense to me. And to my mind it illustrates how and why investigations by GRACE can fall short of delivering true justice. (Hence I never endorse or recommend GRACE. I think GRACE was set up to give abused Christians the impression that “something is being done to mitigate the endemic abuse in churches”.)

The bottom line is that the leaders at Tenth are guilty before God of failing to lead the congregants in a way that would encourage and inspire mauled sheep to come forward and report (not anonymously) the abuses they have suffered.

1 Corinthians 5:11 lists six heinous sins for which a professing Christian should be IMMEDIATELY put out of the church. The BCO [Book of Church Order] fails to address that verse properly. I will keep reiterating this point until I die, and probably churches will keep ignoring my voice. They’ve ignored me for decades and I see no evidence of them changing.

Emma wrote [Internet Archive link]:

If the victims have left the PCA and / or are no longer believers, they are “ineligible” to testify in the church court. The system is at best flawed. At worst, it is oppressive and evil.

***

Further reading

Pastor of Philadelphia’s Historic Tenth Presbyterian Church Resigns [Internet Archive link] — By Steve Rabey, MinistryWatch, December 7, 2023.

Liam Goligher, Pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church, Resigns in the Wake of GRACE Report [Internet Archive link] — By Lynna Sutherland, Advocacy from the Presbyterian Pew, December 10, 2023.