Anglican Watch

Why did Tenth Pres hire GRACE? We have an idea.

Susan Elzey and Liam Goligher, shortly after being criminally charged for sex in a public park

When we look at the mess at Tenth Presbyterian Philadelphia, Liam Goligher and Susan Elzey, we’re seeing a couple of trends come together. And they all spell bad news.

The big question is why did Tenth hire Grace in the first place? The investigation and report, we are told, cost almost 200K, or about a thousand dollars per page. Tellingly, the report side-stepped several key issues:

  • Why were the perjury and other abuse by Liam Goligher, Susan Elzey, George McFarland and others directed at Phil Snyder not addressed?
  • Why did the elders reject suggestions of background checks for all church employees and volunteers?
  • Why were background checks not done as part of the GRACE report?
  • Most of all, why isn’t Tenth actually DOING something about abuse in the church? The place is a veritable three-ring circus of abuse, corruption, nepotism, and complementarian guys covering their ample backsides.

The answer is simple: The church directed the scope of the report. As a result, the report sidestepped a number of inconvenient truths and did its best to point things away from Goligher, McFarland, and the rest of this sordid bunch.

Then we come to the issue of what was to become of the report? The church wanted to keep the report close to the vest, yet it wanted the benefit of being able to say, “We brought in an outside, independent organization.”

But thanks to the stupidity of Susan Elzey and others, a copy of the report almost immediately landed in our hands.

So what happened next?

Initially, the church tried to claim the report was a fake. Similarly, folks claimed that the whole Goligher/Elzey thing was made up, a picnic in the park, and all sorts of BS.

When that didn’t work, George McFarland and the rest of the sorry lot tried a different tack with their spiritual abuse. Specifically, when they couldn’t hold the line any longer, they tried to pull an us-versus-them, in which they proclaimed that the charges against Goligher were true because they had evidence. Thus, the church portrayed itself as the arbiter of all truth, when in reality it’s as crooked as a corkscrew.

But in all of this, there’s a larger point, which is that by pulling in GRACE, Tenth sidestepped convening a church court that would have held Goligher accountable. It’s been several months, and Tenth has yet to follow the procedures outlined in the Book of Church Order.

In other words, Tenth is trying to protect Goligher, and by extension Phil Ryken, who teed up Goligher as his successor—a big no-no in the PCA. And the church is trying to diffuse its way out of crisis, with these small group meetings, even as it buys time.

We also note that George McFarland and the rest of the Boys of Tenth still haven’t taken responsibility for their role in the debacle at the church  — including its atrocious behavior towards Phil Snyder. Remind this godless Episcopalian—doesn’t the Bible say something about Satan being the father of lies? Or could we just stick with the Ninth Commandment and its stricture against false witness?

But then, why start now? The photo at the top of this post was taken in Haddonfield, NJ shortly after Goligher and Elzey were criminally charged for sex in a Lancaster park.

Apparently, even criminal charges aren’t enough to deter these two adulterous clowns. Or enough to get Tenth Pres to denounce corruption, arrange a church trial, and throw Goliger, McFarland, Elzey and the rest of the sorry lot out the door.

So much for integrity in PCA.

In fact, it’s sounding more and more like the Episcopal Church. Zero accountability and money paid to bad actors — the precise opposite of what Jesus would urge us to do.

Until Tenth cleans up its act, this is another church on the no-fly list,

18 comments

  1. nothing has changed there when it comes to the leadership. i do not attend there but have family that does. they continue to drop false accusations against us as it is fed to them by metro sessions and others. the day is coming soon when the truth goes outside of the church realm and into the news.

  2. Wednesday, January 24 – Saturday, February 3
    Join Tenth members from your area to have Q&A and feedback regarding Dr. Goligher’s resignation and the GRACE report.

    Please RSVP below. If you’re able, please bring a snack or dessert to share.

    Northern Tier
    Calvary Presbyterian Church
    405 Easton Road, Willow Grove
    Wed, January 24 — 7pm

    Brandywine & Western Suburbs
    Virtual
    Link will be sent the morning of Jan 25 to those who RSVP.
    Thu, Jan 25 — 7pm

    Metro Parish
    Tenth Presbyterian Church
    17th & Delancey Streets, Philadelphia
    Wed, Jan 31 — 7pm

    New Jersey
    Covenant Presbyterian Church
    520 Kings Hwy S., Cherry Hill
    Thu, Feb 1 — 7pm

    Metro Parish
    Andreozzi Home
    5927 Drexel Rd, Overbrook
    Sat, Feb 3 — 9:30am

    1. to make their meetings more of a joke me and my family are victims who go to a totally different church.and we got the message sent to us on facebook.

  3. Query: where is presbytery on this?

    And can Anglican Watch speak how they knew to even look to the 2014 criminal complaint in Lansdale ?

    1. We ran abackground check on Liam and the arrest was there, plain as day. Which may be why the church has refused to do background checks on its employees and staff.

      As far was we can tell, presbytery, which is heavily influenced by Tenth, is out to lunch on the issue

    2. Such a good question. The background check seemed to happen right after Carroll Wynne was suspended? Conspiracy theory says Carroll tipped someone off since he has been throwing accusations around about Liam and Susan for years and yet did nothing about it except gossip. It does my heart good to hear others are coming out to speak against Carroll. I just hope the Presbytery has enough courage to actually make a good decision to clean house from the top down at Tenth.

      1. No conspiracy theories needed. We ran a background check on our own.

        Initially, we were curious who the other party was, and if it involved a male or female. But when we began asking around, we quickly got documentation that it was Susan Elzey who also pled guilty.

        1. I question the timing of the background check since it coordinated with Carroll’s suspension. I was a victim of Carroll Wynne and I have seen his rage. It makes me believe that Carroll made sure that Liam went down since he was going down. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very sad for the church, but I’m glad they both went down, even though we don’t know if it’s permanent. I’m just curious why the background check was run now and not sooner. It doesn’t really matter in the end. I’m happy the word is out about all of them. I’m praying that the church will be able to heal and move forward with a Godly group of leaders.

  4. There’s one Tenth staff member missing from the Grace Report: Phillip Ryken. The atrocities of Paul Jones and Carroll Wynne all occurred on Dr. Ryken’s watch as Tenth’s senior pastor.

    The Paul Jones report was particularly disturbing and heart breaking. These young men (now middle age) were (literally) scarred for life, physically and emotionally. But Paul Jones had Ryken all wrapped up around his little pinkie. Tenth was to have a SUPERIOR Music Program.

    As for Carroll Wynne, my daughter was one of the young women in the Maranatha youth group who got her bottom patted. She refers to that episode as the day she “lost her Christian faith”.

    Anyone interested in reaching out to Wheaton for a response?

    1. I am so very sorry about your experience, and that of your daughter.

      Any suggestions who we should talk to at Wheaton? Obviously, we have some ideas, but I’m sure you can add to our list.

    2. Hey SMBKRN, I think I know who you are. I knew your daughter’s light. And a number of us are speaking up.

      Phil Ryken’s abuses of people deeply affected a member of my own family. I am disturbed to hear that he is coming to Tenth to preach.

  5. You should contact Jim Goetz and David Gieser. Goetz is the President of the Board of Trustees at Wheaton and Gieser is a Trustee. About 3 years ago, I provided the Trustees with all the information regarding Ryken’s failure as Senior Pastor to address the gross misconduct of Paul Jones at Tenth. The information I provided was more than enough for them to take action to at least investigate the issues. By all indications, they have done nothing.
    I am a graduate of Wheaton and a former member of Tenth. I recommend that parents not send their children to Wheaton, and obviously, I recommend that everyone avoid Tenth Presbyterian.
    You can reach Goetz at [email protected] and Gieser at [email protected]. You can also reach the President’s Office at [email protected].

  6. There is more recent media coverage of Phil Ryken in https://www.breakthrough-ideas.com/post/wheaton-college-is-in-the-news-again. It addresses Ryken’s “petulant” response to a Fox News story on Wheaton Colleges’ “left” turn, but the article also reports on Ryken’s cover-up of the gross misconduct of the Music Director at Tenth by Ryken. It provides the portions of the GRACE report that addressed his failures. Breakthrough-ideas has also been provided the information that I sent to the Wheaton College Trustees regarding Ryken and his failure to report the gross misconduct to the Session and to the police.

    1. Thank you. As in many such cases, we’ve heard from several more people who faced abuse—spiritual or other—-during Ryken’s tenure. True to form, people fear coming forward, which itself is a devastating commentary on the larger situation. So nothing yet big enough to report, but indicia of the depth and breadth of the problems in the PCA.

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