Florida PCA presbytery suspends pastor, Ligonier staffer

The Central Florida Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America, or PCA, on Thursday suspended Burk Parsons from ministry. He is the senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla., where he served under Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul before Sproul’s death. Parsons is also a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and edits its Tabletalk magazine. He intends to appeal the decision, according to MinistryWatch.

Why was Parsons suspended? He harassed and bullied ruling elders and employees at his church and got angry with church members, according to a church court report. The report also said Parsons slandered other churches and ministers and pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2019. He denied the recent charges. The church court made its unanimous decision after 45 hours of trial proceedings and testimony from 55 witnesses. The report did not include specific examples of Parsons’ wrongdoing and said one of the six original charges against him was dropped during proceedings. The commission found him not guilty of two of the remaining five charges.

What are the terms of Parsons’ suspension? The presbytery barred him from preaching, teaching, administering the sacraments, and participating in church courts until he shows evidence of repentance, it said. Neither his church nor Ligonier had said how they planned to respond to the suspension by noon on Friday.

What similar PCA actions occurred recently? The denomination’s administrators accepted the resignation of a top leader one week ago. Bryan Chapell, who served as the PCA’s stated clerk before resigning, started a controversy last month during an interview on The Gospel Coalition’s Gospelbound podcast. Chapell held up a Post-it note with a list of pastors written on it and said they had all left their families, or the faith, or taken their own lives. Chapell posted a public apology and resigned after calls for investigation into his behavior.

Dig deeper: Read Zoe Miller’s report for more details on the Bryan Chapell controversy.