Word: merriams
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Stuart Merriam, 38, attended impromptu services in the basement of the church-and his presence drew crowds twice as large as the ones that came to hear the substitute preacher upstairs. But to most of his fellow ministers. Stuart Merriam is a grave ecclesiastical embarrassment, a preacher ill-suited to his call. Last week the Presbytery of New York-an assembly of ministers and elders that governs 62 United Presbyterian churches in the city-decided, by a vote of 79 to 11, to revoke Broadway Presbyterian's call to Merriam. The presbytery also selected a nine-man judicial commission...
Three Issues. The strange case of Dr. Merriam involves a number of separate, if tangled, issues. Among them: > THEOLOGY. A self-styled "evangelical" Presbyterian, Merriam was called to the Broadway church because his theological views coincided with those of his predominantly conservative congregation. In doctrine, he adheres strictly to the teachings of the Westminster Confession of Faith; his interpretations of Bible passages tend to be literal. Merriam argues that he was removed because his orthodox theology did not sit well with liberals in the presbytery who interpret Scripture and the confession more freely than he does. In answer, presbytery spokesmen...
...March 1961, after a two-year search for a minister, Broadway Presbyterian's congregation voted to "call" (invite) Merriam as their next pastor. Despite misgivings about his fundamentalism, the presbytery approved the choice and almost immediately found reasons to regret it. Merriam brought his huge German shepherd Blitz into the pulpit at a children's service. He earned a brief notoriety by tape-recording a telephone conversation with a State Department official about the problems of an exile from Iran, then playing the tape-including the official's off-the-cuff criticisms of Iranian corruption...
...report approved by the presbytery last week praised Merriam for adding to the congregation's membership and improving church property. But it charged him with intolerance of contemporary theology, unsuitable evangelical approach to the spiritual needs of the Columbia students, theatrical conduct of worship, ineptitude in the Iranian affair...
...Merriam, who is well liked by his congregation, promised to carry his fight to the New York State Synod and to the General Assembly if need be. "I am shocked by the presbytery's action," he said. So, regardless of the merit of the charges, were other clergymen, who worried about the presbytery's behavior in removing a pastor over the objections of his parish. Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell, minister emeritus of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, called the exercise of power "disturbing to ministers and elders of the Presbyterian Church at large...