In the course of our ongoing investigation into Tenth Presbyterian’s Liam Goligher, Anglican Watch came across some curious information that may pertain to his personal conduct.
Public records reveal an arrest and guilty plea for a violation of Lancaster City Code section 98-19.B for a person matching Goligher’s information. The section proscribes sex in city parks.
The case number is MJ-02201-NT-0000745-2014 and involves an arrest on Jul 18, 2014. Charges were filed on July 25, 2014, and a guilty plea was entered on July 31, 2014 before a local magistrate.
Anglican Watch is in the process of filing a request for the original records. If we obtain that data, we will publish it in a follow-up article.
In light of Goligher’s practice of ignoring requests for comment from this publication, and blocking us on social media, we have not contacted him about this information.
In a Reformed church like Tenth Presbyterian every believer is a sinner saved by grace through faith in Christ… Including Liam Goligher. “There is no distinction for all have to sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” Rom.3:22-24. Satan can accuse the Senior Pastor all he wants! But each believer is a child of God and is righteous. Rom.4:7,8
That does not excuse Goligher’s ignoring the sexual harassment of his secretary of many years, or his alleged adulterous relationship with Susan Elzey, who remains active at the church.
Nor is there any excuse for the church’s conduct towards Phil Snyder. When the church repents of its lies and misconduct and makes restitution, then we’ll talk. And for the record, sin is sin. Having an affair or committing perjury is unacceptable.
Until then, our advice remains: Avoid Tenth Presbyterian at all costs, where the grace is cheap, and bad conduct expensive.
He may be perfectly righteous in God’s eyes because of the blood of Christ, but that does not mean he has not disqualified himself from holding the office of minister. Forgiveness does not equal restoration to a leadership position in the church.
The New Testament is clear that elders, especially those who are teachers of God’s word, are held to a higher standard and are disqualified from holding the office of elder if they fail to meet those standards (whether initially being considered for eldership or after they have become one). If these allegations are true (and it sure looks like they are, IMHO), he has violated several of the basic qualifications for being an elder.
If he truly knows Christ and has the HS dwelling in him (and there is any truth to these allegations) we should see him confess and take responsibility for his actions and humbly disqualify himself as an elder.
He has resigned.
why have you lost two pastor’s in two weeks. shame on you for being so blind to the actions of both pastor wynn and golgher tenth is in the business of covering things up and circling the wagons to cover up sin.
And attacking people who call them out on it. The Phil Snyder situation is appalling, particularly Elzey’s flagrant lies.
There is a special place in hell for hypocrites like Elzey.
I hope they do not end up in hell. I pray they turn from their evil ways and acknowledge God. I pray they are humbled and seek to make remedy to those who they have harmed.
who has been protecting the innocent children and families who have been hurt by the actions of men who should have not been in the pulpit. current grace report details the actions of a man alone with females. As a born-again Christian it turns my stomach the actions of your 2 pastors at tenth. where there is smoke there is fire and how deep is the abuse that went on at tenth. what victims are out there who are afraid to come forward. these men forced staff out there for less. how many more people need to be hurt before tenth cleans up their act. The people are being hurt in Christ name as the people left there continue to enable bad actions by failure of true love of GOD .
Agree. And fear is not of God. So many people have told us that they are afraid of Liam Goligher.
Tenth needs to clean up its act. Elzey needs to be excommunicated, the church needs to come clean about the reasons for Goligher’s departure, and it needs to fix its misconduct towards Phil Snyder.
And this bit about hiring lawyers to go after Phil and others is not Christian. The session and elders need to publicly repent and make restitution.
Until these things happen, Tenth is toxic and should be avoided at all costs.
I’m also betting Nancy Wilson has skin in the game and is trying to minimize corruption in the church.
The Apostle Paul claims that just because the grace of God abounds to meet the sin of the world, it does not give believers license to sin. Also leaders of the church are to remain above reproach. If they aren’t, they should be removed from leadership. It doesn’t mean they are any less a child of God, from whom is required confession and repentance of sin. It is important to have these things clear and in good order for the sake of members of the church and for those perishing and yet to hear the gospel of Christ.
I began a Women’s Ministry at 10th Presbyterian. Liam Goligher was always inappropriate with women. Unsolicited hugging and constant flirting. I am not surprised by this report. I am severely hurt that even the Elders were complicit in the cover up but NOT surprised. This is a men’s church serving men, and women are collateral appendages. Liam also went after gays and in one instance opened up a long closed case that cost the church 250,000 dollars as they were sued. Liam is a sad and embarrassing demonstration of abusive power and damage to the spiritual lives of many, many women and men. His tenure has been a nightmare and used women to fulfill his lusts. I left this church as it was cult-like in its slavish worship & fear of a sick individual. Forgiveness is essential but stupidity not.
We are very sorry for your experience. You’re spot on in your take on things. It’s also worth noting that we see zero sign of repentance on Goligher’s part.
Thank you very much Maureen for your comment. 🙂
A comforting sermon from Tenth last week, after Goligher resigned and Wynne was removed:
https://www.tenth.org/livestream?event=1391
@ 35 minutes 49 seconds
Satan wants to devour this church. But God still lives there and can work through this.
I agree that at this point in time that Tenth is toxic and has been for many years. But God is faithful and will cleanse this church because it is His church. I believe that women in leadership positions would have mitigated and possibly eliminated this perverted sexual environment. Unfortunately the prevailing attitude is that women are deemed inferior and not worthy of leadership. Apparently we are easily deceived ( as in Eve) and would fall for lies and every evil thing. My last recall is that there were two bites out of that apple yet as in this case, only Eve took the hit. It is now 2023 and time for adapting to educated women who have a heart to serve God, not just as secretaries, nursery caregivers and library. We are to be working side by side as helpers in EVERY area of ministry.
We agree. To use the famous Anglican quote, “We have no desire to make windows into the souls of men.”
At the same time, we are definitely not complementarian. Yes, there are women like Susan Elzey who should have no role in any church, but our overall experience is that women are excellent pastors.
I am so very sad for the Tenth congregation. All mankind are, as we know, sadly sinful and fallible. If these allegations are true, there is no excuse for this behavior from a leader of the church and a man in any position of authority. However, judgement is between him and our Lord. As far as the victims of this (and make no mistake there are many, many victims), the involved families are the first victims of the scandal, but the staff and congregation of Tenth are the second victims. Condemning Tenth is not the answer to help it heal and recover from this sad time. That just allows Satan to win as he seeks to tear down those that love and fear the Lord. Prayers and compassion are needed. Dark days indeed.
we are one those families that were affected by the actions of these men. Unless those left behind wake up to what went on there. You cannot tell me that some of the elders and other leaders were blind to the actions of these.leaders.what is tenth doing to help the victims of the actions of these men. Other than covering up their behavior. Sadly, innocent children were and continue to be affected where is the i suggest that if tenth as church wants help, they start a fund for the victims of such actions.
I appreciate your heart behind your comment and respect your unique connection to Tenth Pres, but I need to push back on a couple of things. Judgment is not just a matter between Goligher and the Lord. Paul clearly teaches in 1 Cor 5 that Christians are responsible to judge those within the church, especially those professing to be followers of Christ who commit heinous sins. You will also never convince me that there was no one else at the church who didn’t know about what happened and sat on it all these years. Condemning Tenth Pres is up to the One that watches over their lamp stand but there will be no healing or moving forward without calls from within and without the church for the leaders and congregants responsible to be publicly held accountable. The humble reality is that the Lord does not need Tenth Pres to accomplish his mission. If, as a church, they are unwilling to bring the years of covering up abuse, lack of repentance, perjury, the unjust character assassination of whistle blowers, and other evil acts into the light… And if they refuse to demand justice, restitution, and care for those victimized… the church will have forfeited their privilege of participating in that Kingdom mission.
Tom, thank you for mentioning 1 Corinthians 5.
1 Corinthians 5 tells us there are six sins for which professing believers should be promptly and resolutely disciplined:
fornication — sexual sin
covetousness — greed
idolatry —elevating something other than God to the place that only God can occupy
reviling — assailing with abusive and scornful language, verbal abuse, slander
drunkenness, and
extortion — snatching, taking by force, predation, rape, plundering, subsisting on live prey.
We know the church discipline must be total dis-fellowshipping of the hypocrite, because Paul taught this explicitly:
When you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. … put away from yourselves that wicked person (1 Cor. 5:4–5, 13b).
Most importantly, we know this to be a commandment to the church, not just to the individual who has been the victim of the heinous sinner’s conduct.
The six sins named in 1 Corinthians 5:11 are heinous – they do grievous harm to the victim and will do much damage in the church if they are allowed to continue, leavening the whole lump with the narcotic of deception and the pride of self-righteousness and apathy. I believe it is for this reason that 1 Corinthians 5 prescribes a much quicker excommunication than the one which might take place under Matthew 18. The decisive act which Paul prescribed was to be carried out in his physical absence, without hesitation: Purge the evil person from among you! In contrast, Matthew 18 describes a gradual escalation of discussion and confrontation and inclusion of more witnesses until a final decision is reached.
Paul in his own mind had already handed the man over to satan. I imagine Paul making this kind of prayer: “Dear God, let satan deal with this man so that his spirit may perhaps be saved in the day of the Lord. He is no longer the church’s responsibility. Oh, and dear Father, please let the Corinthian church obey my instructions swiftly, so that their arrogance and apathy will be brought to a halt.”
What I’ve written here is an excerpt from this blog post of mine : https://cryingoutforjustice.blog/2013/10/04/church-discipline-and-church-permission-for-divorce-how-my-mind-has-changed/
From the comments of https://thewartburgwatch.com/2023/12/06/what-in-the-world-happened-to-pastor-liam-goligher-pastor-carroll-wynne-and-others-at-tenth-presbyterian-church/ ….
They were caught in a park in Lancaster, Pa., which is a nearly two hours drive from the church in Philadelphia.
The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is headquartered in Lancaster!
(The Alliance was founded in the 1990s by James Boice, then pastor of this Tenth Presbyterian Church)
The T4G boys club formed while Mohler, Mahaney, Dever, and Duncan served on the Alliance board together:
https://web.archive.org/web/20091228033808/http://www.alliancenet.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086_CHID798774_CIID1920170,00.html
Goligher had a radio ministry with the Alliance, seems to have ended right when C-19 hit in 2020:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180513/https://www.tenth.org/resource-library/blog-entries/no-falling-word-2/
“No Falling Word is a weekly radio broadcast by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, presenting the biblical and scholarly teaching of Dr. Liam Goligher, Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.”
Released the day after the incident.
https://www.alliancenet.org/nofallingword?page=29
No Falling Word
The Taming of the Gods
Posted: July 19, 2014
Christians like to place blame on secular education and popular culture, but the church itself is often hostile toward God and disobedient to his Word. Take for example, the Israelites, who tried, quite literally, to put God in a box. Whether the idols in our lives are physical statues or are simply priorities that we place before God, they all share one common trait: they are given life by the people who worship them?
I am angry and grieving about Goligher being a wolf in shepherd’s clothing. I run a blog that focuses on domestic abuse in a Christian context. At my blog I had publicised Liam Goligher’s sermon series about Esther. https://cryingoutforjustice.blog/2021/06/10/esther-sermon-series-digest-liam-goligher/
I had also praised him for publicly stating that domestic abuse is grounds for divorce. https://cryingoutforjustice.blog/2019/02/18/liam-goligher-is-a-pca-theologian-who-says-abuse-is-grounds-for-divorce/
Goligher has been much admired for publicly denouncing ESS as an unorthodox doctrine. (Eternal Subordination of the Son). I praised him for doing that. https://cryingoutforjustice.blog/2016/08/14/the-trinity-theres-a-danger-in-trying-to-explain-things-that-are-beyond-our-pay-grade/
I will now have to put caveats and warnings on all my blog posts that mention Liam Goligher. Sigh. More work for my already exhausted nervous system.
i encourage people of tenth read grace report and decide if it time to clean house with sessions and others. by the way this Wynne’s second suspension this year. will be posting every day until someone steps up to get us as victims of the actions there.
It is a shame what vanity can do to a person. Destroy a family, destroy a marriage, destroy a career, destroy a legacy, destroy a retirement, destroy finances. They can rebuild the marriage, but it will never be quite the same. He was nearly 20 years older. I’m sure he was flattered. One of them initiated the act in a public place, one of them was the initiator. When they look back on it now, how do they feel? Old man, younger harried busy woman. Same old thing, over and over. When I sat there in my pew, or watched in online, I had wondered why he hadn’t retired yet. Carry on the charade just to keep the money coming in.
Spot on.
We’re seeing that in many denominations, where self-entitled old white guys cling to senior positions, often doing very little real work, while younger clergy struggle to find paying positions.
When this happens, and it dawns on congregations that they’ve been paying six-figure incomes to feckless clergy who babble on about love but are living a lie, the consequences for the churches in question and their denominations can be dire.
I am a current member of Tenth. Pastor Goligher was well beloved, and many people, such as myself, followed and have learned much from his exegetically-detailed sermons. In his defense, the most serious misinformation being promulgated against him is that he was arrested – the truth is that he was only issued a citation, which is not the same at all as being arrested. A “citation” is a written notice from a law enforcement officer charging someone with breaking a law. A traffic ticket is a citation. In contrast, in an “arrest” a person is taken into custody, against that person’s will, in order to prosecute or interrogate. It involves an application of an officer’s show of force. Pastor Goligher was never arrested, and your reporting (along with others) is incorrectly reporting that he was.
Jim, we do not agree that the mechanics matter. Whether Goligher was detained, arrested, issued a summons, placed in jail, whatever, the bottom line is that Goligher committed a criminal and moral offense. Moreover, the charging documents reference an “arresting officer,” as you will see from our post of the relevant documents.
As to your affection for Goligher, we’ve been in your place with abusive clergy. But the reality is in those cases, the affection and respect is not returned. Not only did Goligher allegedly engage in highly inappropriate conduct with a parishioner, but he didn’t have sufficient respect for his church to admit his wrongdoing, to repent, or even agree to the recommendations that all clergy and staff undergo background checks.
Nor is Goligher remorseful or repentant, as made clear by his laughably stupid cease-and-desist letter.
Apropos Goligher’s letter and his attorney, we agree with Boz T: Attorneys cannot be all things to all people. His attorney claims to be a member of the Christian Legal Society, but he’s come to the defense of someone whose conduct is outrageous.
Also of note is that Goligher’s defenders ignore the Ninth Commandment and its prohibition of false witness. Goligher, Elzey, McFarland and others have all borne false witness with their claims that Phil Snyder is mentally ill and threatened the congregation. Until Session and Tenth publicly repent and make restitution and turn from this sin, we are going to call the lot of you out on this issue. Even worse, Session told parishioners that it had no plans to sue Snyder, and then turned around and did exactly that.
In Elzey’s case, we note that someone from Haddon Heights NJ attempted to post comments claiming there were no issues with Elzey and Goligher, and that everything was Phil Snyder’s fault. Sounds suspiciously like Elzey trying to gaslight us, and we have received unconfirmed reports that she has lied to her family about the incident.
So, things start with the resignation of Session and a metaphoric clearing of the Temple. Once that is done and you all have fixed the problems you caused for Phil and numerous others, then we’ll talk.
Until then, we’re calling a spade a spade. Tenth Presbyterian is abusive, bears false witness against truthtellers, and is otherwise a whitewashed tomb and a brood of vipers.