>>Note: Please see current post related to this.

Email to Dr. Kenneth Gary Talbot, Moderator fo Westminster Prebytery of the RPCGA, sent 1/31/2006 10:06am:

Subject: 01/26/06 Declaratory Judgment

Dr. Talbot,

Greetings.

I am writing to you regarding the Declaratory Judgment against the session of St. Peter Presbyterian Church dated January 26, 2006. I was notified last night that I am referenced in this judgment on page nine. I have just a few comments about my quotes in the Judgment.

Let me preface my remarks with a request to remove my name and comments from this judgment. It is my preference to stay out of this ordeal entirely. In addition, my comments do not supply any necessary evidence to support your case, and are therefore superfluous. Half of the subject matter is in regard to something not even in view in this Judgment (the pastoral oversight to a congregation outside the RPCGA, and ordination of officers to said congregation), and the other half deals with a topic (paedocommunion) which is admitted by the session of St. Peter Presbyterian Church. I see no need for my name and words to be included in this Judgment.

About the actual quotes, first, let me point out that there is an error. My comments are dated in the Judgment as 11/24/2004. That actual date is 11/24/2003.

Next, I did not mention it in my post, but Laurence Windham announced, before the service began, that there was some question about the admittance of young children to the Table. I do not recall his exact words, nor do I recall everything that he said, but what I do remember is that he said if a child had been brought to the Table by the session that had authority over him/her, then the session of St. Peter did not have the authority to deny their access to the Table. Since my session had judged my daughter as qualified to come to the Lord’s Table, I allowed her to come. Laurence Windham (or anyone else, for that matter) did not speak one way or the other about the qualification of my child.

Let me again make known my request in no uncertain terms. I wish to have nothing to do with this Judgment one way or the other. I am not associated with St. Peter Presbyterian Church, or even particularly friendly with them. I ask that my name and comments be stricken from the Judgment as well as any other record of this trial, and not be associated with this Judgment in any way.

Peace of Christ,
Richard Okimoto

There has been no response to this email.

Geneva celebrated her first Communion yesterday.

It was wonderful. I held the plate in front of her (as she sat on Megan’s lap), and Megan took a piece. Megan started to take a piece for Geneva, but I stopped her. Geneva, by this point, had learned that she didn’t get any, so she just sat. I put the plate closer to her with a slight motion saying “you can have some”, and she looked up at me. I said to her, “Go ahead, you can have a piece”. Her eyes lit up like a thousand suns. Her face was beaming. It was the most glorious thing. She was absolutly delighted. And so were we.

I was surprised at how well she knew the ritual. She knew what to do and when to do it. She didn’t even attempt to eat the bread until after we had prayed, and everyone else was eating their bread. I knew she was watching us, but didn’t realize all the detail that she picked up from watching us the past two years. She ate her bread, and looked around at everyone else, with one of the biggest smiles I’ve seen on her face.

And she didn’t spill a drop of wine. It took her two sips to drink all that was in the little cup, but she got it all into her mouth.

Hey joy actually began the night before. I had spoken to our elders Saturday morning, and told them that I believed she was ready. Our church’s consitution says that when the head of household believes a child is ready, they tell the elders, and then the elders meet and receive the child to the Table. The elders meet on Friday mornings, so I wasn’t expecting Geneva to have the Lord’s Supper yesterday, but next Sunday. That night, though, while we were out, our pastor called and left a message saying that it would be fine for Geneva to partake this week. So I told Geneva that she would get to have her first Lord’s Supper, and have Jesus’ body and blood. She was happy about it then, as evidenced by the smile she made. But apparently she didn’t really remember or realize that she would actually get to celebrate the sacrament herself. She did the same thing when we told her about it Sunday morning, before church.

Then, near the end of the sermon, when she began to get fidgety, I reminded her again that she would receive Jesus’ body and blood shortly, and she would give that million dollar smile.

It was wonderful, just wonderful.

And, not only did she celebrate her first Lord’s Supper yesterday, she also celebrated her second Lord’s Supper!

Yesterday evening there was an ordination service for some elders and a deacon at a CRE church in Knoxville, TN. Actually, it isn’t a full memberchurch yet. We (Providence) sponsored them into the CRE, but pastoral oversight was given by St. Peter Presbyterian Church. Now, to take an aside, that is a wonderful thing. St. Peter isn’t even in our denomination, but they went to great effort to help this new church get started.
So, last night was the ordination service at St. Peter, in Bristol, TN. It wa sa joint service between the three churches. Laurence Windham began the service (prayer, singing and absolution), and then our pastor, Virgil Hurt, preached a very short sermon. Then RC Sproul, Jr., performed the ordination itself (which I was surprised when he called all the ordained elders and deacons in the congregation to come forward for the laying on of hands). And then the newly ordained elders aministered the Lord’s Supper.

St. Peter has a different way of serving the Supper. Each family goes up and is served. The congregation sings songs while everyone goes up. Geneva was scared. It was quite different for her, so when it came time to eat the bread, she cried. I guess going up to the front, and a stranger serving her the bread, and also praying for Ashley, was too much for her. I held her in my arms, and that comforted her because she didn’t have much of a problem drinking the wine. Except this time she spilled it. Oh well.

It was simply glorious.