For those of
you who are interested in the truth about Heights Presbyterian Church and Mike
Cole of the Presbytery of New Covenant read on. For the rest of you, go
back to sleep, the truth will just confuse you. This email has been sent
to the 1,750 officers and staff of the General Assemby, all the Synods and all
the Presbyteries in the United States.
The following appeared in the latest Presbytery of New Covenant newsletter.
It is just more lies endorsed by Mike Cole. I have responded in italics to
the entire article.
Interim Accounting
Heights Administrative Commission Reports
by Mark Cooper, Postlude Reporter
In its February meeting, the Presbytery voted to assume original jurisdiction of
Heights Presbyteryian Church.
"What happened was that Joe Delgatto the lying, thieving, corrupt
minister of Heights Presbyterian Church (HPC) and seven of the twelve members of
the HPC session, without informing the rest of the session members, attended the
quarterly Presbytery meeting unannounced. They presented their lies to the
Presbytery and I wrote the following to the congregation after the alleged vote
of the Presbytery.
{{ I will be filing an official complaint with the Synod of the Sun regarding
the illegal acts of Presbytery. I have Lynn Johnson on video and Reagan
Brown, attorney for Presbytery, deliberately lying to the congregation and the
court about the authority of Presbytery to take control of the session. Even when I pointed out the lies of Mr. Brown to the court, he still adhered to
his misstatements.
There are two sources of authority regarding Presbytery’s intervention in the
affairs of the session.
G-9.0503 (a) The function ordinarily entrusted to an administrative
commission are: 4) to visit particular churches, governing bodies, or other
organizations of the church reported to be affected with disorder, and to
inquire and settle the difficulties therein…
G-11.0103 The presbytery is responsible for the mission and government of the
church throughout its geographical district. It therefore has the
responsibility and power: (s) to assume original jurisdiction in any case in
which it determines that a session cannot exercise its authority. Whenever, after a thorough investigation, and after full opportunity to be heard
has been accorded to the session in question, the presbytery of jurisdiction
shall determine that the session of a particular church is unable or unwilling
to manage wisely the affairs of the church, the presbytery may appoint an
administrative commission (G.9.0503) with the full powers of a session.
As you can see from the above Rules per the Book of Order, the Presbytery does
not have the authority to take over the session because it has done no
investigation, it has not allowed the session members to speak and it has not
considered that the problems with the session are the moderator, Joe Delgatto
who has effective shut down the church.
In a word, the presbytery has overstepped its bounds and Lynn Johnson has lied
to the congregation about his authority and the authority of the administrative
commission.
In addition,
G- 9.0502 A commission is empowered to consider and conclude matters referred to
it by a governing body. The appointing body shall state specifically the
scope of the power given to a commission. A commission shall keep a full
record of its proceedings, which shall be submitted to its governing body to be
incorporated in its minutes and to be regarded as the actions of the governing
body itself.
There has been no mandate from the presbytery giving the administrative
commission any particular authority. Lynn Johnson lied about it to the
congregation and Reagan Brown lied about it to the court. There is no
mandate from presbytery defining the scope and duties of the commission. Certainly there is nothing authorizing the commission to take over the
session.}}
This action was taken at the request of the request of the church session,
which found itslef unable to effectively lead the congregation.
"This action was taken in secret to push through the HUD project that
Joe Delgatto and a few other corruptors were trying to foist on HPC for their
personal financial gain. The Presbytery is in on the corruption and the
illegal forming of the administrative commission and its takeover of the session
was to support Delgatto and the HUD project."
In the interim report of the Heights Administrative Commission, Doug Harper,
the commission's chair, related substantial progress made at the church.
"This is an absolute lie. There has been no progress made except
the pushing through of the HUD project. There have been two interim
reports, 1) one, one page and 2) seventeen pages. Both dealt virtually
exclusive with the HUD project. Both were full of lies. The
congregation is more tense now than ever before. By the way, Mark Cooper
has never attended Heights Presbyterian Church."
Doug explained that the commission has convened eight times since February,
and has also met twice with the congregation and once with the session."
"The commission has met about three times, once a month, plus two
meetings with the congregation, sort of. The meeting with the congregation
was on a one on one basis with a ten minute limit per member. If husband
and wife attended together, they were limited to ten minutes. There has
never been an open congregational meeting. Mind you there are only about
forty five active members of HPC. About thirty of the members handed the
commission a six page check list of things wrong at HPC that had been typed up
by WorldPeace. Most of the complaints were about Delgatto and were in the
format of an official Book of Order complaint. The commission told some of
the congregation members that it had forwarded the complaints on to Presbytery
of New Covenant for processing because the complaints were not within their
authority. There has been one thirty minute meeting with the session as a group
in four months. Each member was allowed three minutes to speak."
During this time they have planned and approved the 2003 Budget.
"The pledges to the church are about $40,000 per year. Delgatto
gets about $65,000 and the rest of the Budget expenses including Delgatto's
salary adds up to $191,000. The deficit is made up from the remainder of a
million dollar bequest that was made six years ago when the church budget was
$78,000. Since Delgatto came to HPC five years ago, $600,000 is unaccounted for.
Also the Budget compares last year's budget with this year's budget. The
Commission refuses to compare last years actual income and expenses to this
year's budget. The goal of the Presbytery is to bankrupt HPC and then sell
the church's $2.5 million property and its $8 million (net) thirty year
old retirement home investment to add to the retirement fund of the preacher's
union."
Developed a committee structure for church ministry.
"This is another lie. The committees were already there. They were just renamed.
Nothing was done and members of the church are
discourage from working on the church if they do not belong to a
committee."
And approved plans to celebrate the church's 100th anniversary.
"This is another lie. No plans have been announced and the
anniversary is next month. Nothing has been planned and the chairman of
the committee, Barbara Puckett, has stated that there may not be an anniversary
event due to apathy. This is the same member who is trying to gain control
of the last $200,000 of the $1 million dollar bequest."
Their work has also included reports to the congregation, one of which was
17 pages, single-spaced type, prepared by Reagan Brown, legal counsel to the
commission.
"Another half truth. The only reports have been the one and
seventeen page report regarding the HUD project. Nothing regarding the
healing of the church has been done or proposed."
The present conflict in the church centers on the church's association with
a HUD housing project called the Independence Heights Project.
"This is just one problem of many. The real problem is the never
ending lies of Joe Delgatto who would rather lie than eat. Joe's lies have
driven a permanent rift in the congregation."
As the commission seeks to resolve that conflict, they have "made
certain" that the church has no financial obligation to that project.
"Another lie. The project could not go forward without a non-profit
sponsor. In court, Delgatto testified that he did not have approval from
the session, the congregation or the Presbytery to obligate HPC to the project.
From May 2001 to February 2002, only three people knew about the project. It was a big secret.
In February, Delgatto told the session. In
April, Delgatto and the promoters met with WorldPeace, attorney for trustee
Joyce Wolter, and suit was filed three days later when the corruption was
discovered; ie, buying the property for the $4.7 million project for $237,000
when it was on the tax rolls for $37,000. HPC is obligated to cover the
financial deficit in the building of the project and the monthly rental deficit,
(apartments rent for $25 per month) for the next forty years per HUD. The
commission and Delgatto are lying to the congregation and everyone else they
speak to. There is a court date set for June 17th, in which a lot of truth
will come out and maybe a few people will go to jail for contempt of court.
And by the way, the commission had Delgatto allegedly remove Joyce Wolter as
trustee last month. Joyce has been a member of HPC for over sixty
years."
The commission is also in the process of securing a financial review of the
chruch finances.
"Another lie. There is a motion in the court for a CPA audit for
the last five years. Since Delgatto became minister, $600,000 is missing
and no audit has taken place. Two of the congregation who looked at the
books last year refused to sign a statement that the church finances were in
order. The commission is trying to avoid an outside audit because they
know the scandal that will emerge. And Mike Cole is fully aware of the
cover up."
Internal difficulties remain, including disturbances in worship and a
lawsuit filed against the commission.
"There has been only one disturbance in the worship service in four
months. That was when Roy Keezel, attorney and arrogant member of the
commission, made a statement from the pulpit that new members were welcomed.
WorldPeace his wife and aunt got up and went to the front of the church to
reactivate their membership. Keezel in essence said that they would not be
allowed to join, Delgatto who was sitting behind Keezel refused to even rise up
and speak. And nothing has been done. In fact, there have been no
new members in the church for almost a year. All this was video taped by
WorldPeace and anyone who wants a copy can get one by writing me. WorldPeace video tapes parts of the service each Sunday in order to record the
lies being told from the pulpit. So far Delgatto, Art Greer and Lyn
Johnson from the Presbytery, and Keezel have been recorded while lying to the
congregation from the pulpit. This is all evidence in the lawsuit which
was filed against Delgatto and others eight months before the commission was
even appointed."
Doug expressed great appreciation to Reagan Brown, Lyn Johnson, New
Covenant's Stated Clerk, the GA stated clerk, and the commission members in
dealing with this "unique phenomenon".
"The unique phenomenon is the fact that the Presbytery, Delgatto and
other have conspired to bankrupt the church, cover up the theft of $600,000 and
the illegal commitment to a $4.7 million HUD project. The unique
part is that WorldPeace sued thirteen months ago to stop the
corruption."
They covet your prayers as they continue with this important and difficult
task.
"Funny, they refuse to have an open congregation meeting on the record.
Funny nothing has been done except to push through the HUD project and have
violated the court's injunction in the process. Funny when the Presbytery
met last month they did not set up a committee to investigate the 35 complaints
against Delgatto. Funny tey are now trying to cover up the theft if
$600,000 by refusing to allow an outside audit. Funny how Mike Cole is
right in the middle of all this corruption. Funny how only two members of
the commission attend the Sunday services. Funny how the commission
insists that nothing be recorded of the meetings.
In the end, there will be an accounting to the courts, the congregation and
eventually to Jesus. In the meantime, Mike Cole continues to be the source
of the problem as opposed to the solution. For Cole, it is about
preserving the church bureaucracy and not about serving Jesus. Cole's
master is the prince of darkness.
And for those of you in positions of power in the Presbyterian Church and who
actually read this and intend to do nothing, shame on you.
WorldPeace
How can we manifest peace on
earth if we do not include everyone (all races, all nations, all religions, both
sexes) in our vision of Peace?
To the WorldPeace Peace Page