The Book of Discipline says, “In order to institute a formal judicial process, the accuser or the special prosecutor shall sign and submit a charge in writing. It shall name the specific offense, the time, place and circumstances of its commission. It shall also provide a list of the witnesses and of all papers to be offered in evidence” (page E-10). The investigative committee appointed by the SJC signed and submitted charges of sin on November 12, 2021. The SJC ruled that these charge conformed to these requirements.
GLG Presbytery Charges
On March 6, 2021 the GLG Presbytery appointed special prosecutors to bring charges against the remaining elders of IRPC. The prosecutors drafted the charges and submitted them. However, Pastor James Faris requested a stay on the Presbytery taking action due to the complaint he was filing with Synod against the GLG. The AIC put a stay on the charges. When Synod took jurisdiction of the matter in June of 2021 the GLG special prosecutors were removed.
Read the special prosecution’s charge against Jared Olivetti here.
Read the special prosecution’s charge against David Carr here.
Read the special prosecution’s charge against Ben Larson here.
Read the special prosecution’s charge against Keith Magill here.
Read the special prosecution’s charge against Nate Pfeiffer here.
Synod Charges
The Synod Judicial Commission appointed investigators who ultimately brought charges against the leadership at Immanuel.
J. Olivetti’s Charges
The SJC report to Synod, included in the Minutes of Synod 2022, offer a summary of the accusation against J. Olivetti, and states that he didn’t safeguard or maintain the qualifications for the eldership. This included multiple counts that he had not been above reproach, he did not manage his household well, and he did not maintain a good reputation. These are the Bible’s requirements for the office of elder in 1 Timothy 3:2, 4-5, and 7 and Titus 1:6-7 (see RPT 25.6 and Directory for Church Government, page D-13).
Underscoring the seriousness of this, the SJC also stated, “He was found guilty, not solely of failure to manage his household, but also of multiple acts of active transgression and pastoral negligence. We concluded that several of the actions proved were sins of persistent neglect and that there were offenses in his conduct that were disqualifying for office; thus the Commission deposed him from office and suspended him from the privileges of church membership.”
In the closing of the live-streamed portion of the judicial trial for J. Olivetti, it was said:
We love the law of God. And we love the law of God, because God has put his name on his law. The Triune God has magnified himself through a revelation in both creation and scripture of this law. The law of God is an expression of the holiness, of the righteousness, of the goodness of our Father. For those who are in Christ, the law of God comes not as an enemy, but as a friend and we receive it from the hand of a Mediator, the one who exalts himself as Jesus Christ, the righteous. The law comes through the effectual ministry of the Spirit, and one of the highest blessings of the new covenant is to have the Spirit of God write upon our hearts his law. And so it is brothers, the Triune God in His unity and in His plurality, who magnifies himself through a disclosure of his pure and spotless will.
K. Borg Closing Statement
And because of that we’ve often sung with the Psalmist: “Oh, how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.” We’ve often sung with the Psalmist: “My eyes stream and I shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law.” And we’ve often, in the assurance and the consolations of the gospel, sung with the Psalmist: “Search me, know me, try me and find any impure way within me and lead me in the paths of righteousness.”
Brothers, you have been reminded of some of the testimony that we have heard in these last couple of days — testimony that demonstrates that our brother, Mr. Olivetti, has broken the law of God. In our charge of sins submitted to this commission on November 12, 2021 we identified that Mr. Olivetti had violated the law of God. He violated the second commandment, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth commandments of God’s law.
The second because this command requires that we keep pure church government and church discipline. But Mr. Olivetti, as has been testified to, misused the government of the church to advantage himself, to keep things from coming to the light that needed to come to light, to give the appearance of accountability, and to control the situation.
The third because this command binds us to a holy profession, and then an answerable life. This commandment forbids the violation of our lawful oaths and vows, but Mr. Olivetti in this situation has not maintained an answerable life to the profession he makes, and he has broken his oaths and vows made in covenant with God and with us as co-laborers and members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.
The fourth commandment because superiors are not only to honor the Lord’s Day for themselves, but they are to see to it that it is observed by those who are under their charge. But Mr. Olivetti was not diligent to safeguard this day, this one day in seven as the offender, under his responsibility, frequently sexually abused victims on a day that is intended to rest not only from our works and entertainment, but to rest from sin. And because of negligence in this, a day that God has declared we are to call a delight could very well be the day of some covenant children’s greatest trauma.
The fifth commandment because superiors are to bless their inferiors, reproving and chastising those who do ill and protecting and providing for inferiors all things necessary for soul and body. And superiors are to preserve the authority that God has put on them. Superiors are forbidden in their God-given position from seeking their own glory, their own ease, their own profit, or in any way lessening their authority by unjust or remiss behavior. But Mr. Olivetti has been found to have repeatedly violated this commandment, not blessing his inferiors.
The sixth commandment because we are to protect and we are to defend the innocent. But Mr. Olivetti behaved in ways that did not protect and did not defend the innocent, but defended and protected one guilty of serious sexual sin and masterful deceit.
The seventh because it requires us to preserve not only in ourselves but in others, chastity in body, mind, affections, and behaviors. The seventh commandment bids us to a diligent labor in our calling. But Mr. Olivetti, through negligence, endangered others in body, mind, affection, and behaviors.
The eighth commandment because it forbids us injustice and unfaithfulness between man and man in matters of trust, or withholding from our neighbor what rightly belongs to our neighbor. But Mr. Olivetti, as has been testified to, has seriously breached and broken relationships of the deepest trust in the promotion of injustice, and withholding that which should be given to another.
The ninth commandment because this command requires that we promote the good name of our neighbor. But Mr. Olivetti assumed sin in covenant children who were sexually sinned against. The ninth commandment requires that we stand for the truth and that from the heart, we sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully speak the truth in matters of justice. Mr. Olivetti hindered the truth from coming to light. The ninth commandment requires keeping lawful promises, practicing what is true, honest and of good report. The ninth commandment forbids prejudicing the truth and the good name of our neighbor. It forbids concealing the truth, it forbids undue silence in a just cause, it forbids perverting the truth to a wrong meaning, or in doubtful or equivocal expressions. And it forbids the hiding and excusing of sins when called to a free confession, and the ninth commandment forbids the procuring for oneself an ill name.
In this way, Mr. Moderator and Synod Judicial Commission, our brother, Mr. Olivetti has violated the law of God.
Further, Mr. Moderator and Commission, in our November 12, 2021 charges, we noted that Mr. Olivetti was not behaving and walking in the light of his solemn promises, made by covenant and oath, and through solemn vows. The Covenant for Communicant Membership query four, which we have all taken in the presence of God, asks “Do you recognize your responsibility to work with others in the church?” In query five we promise to keep the Lord’s Day, and as pastors, as fathers, as men, we obligate ourselves in the keeping of the Lord’s Day to ensure those under us, likewise, are seeking to keep that day of delight. In the sixth query of our covenant we freely say before God, and affirm our willingness of purpose, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in all the relationships of life. The relationships that we experience in covenant with one another in the church — member to member, elder to members — is a relationship that is unique in this world. The only similar relationship is that of marriage, because it is a relationship that is founded solely upon trust. And when we covenant ourselves to walk in relation with each other, we have a high stewardship to maintain that relationship of trust.
Our brother, Mr. Olivetti, has stood before the courts of this church to answer queries for ordination, for installation, and for licensure. Mr. Olivetti, in the presence of the courts of the RPC and in the presence of the tribunal of God, has promised in his ordination and installation, that in the strength of God, he would live a holy and exemplary life, that he would promote the purity, peace, unity, and progress of the church, and that he would do this as one, according to the eighth query, who must watch the souls of others to give an account to the one who is the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, and the only Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. Mr. Olivetti in the ninth ordination query promised subjection in the Lord to the courts of the church. He engaged to follow no divisive courses from the doctrine and order which the church has solemnly recognized and adopted. He promised to submit to all the brotherly counsel which his brothers would tender him in the Lord. And Mr. Olivetti has not been faithful to these solemn obligations.
Brothers, these are the promises that Mr. Olivetti freely, willingly made obligating himself not only to the Lord Jesus Christ, not only to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, but to the Immanuel Reformed Presbyterian Church, and those whom Jesus Christ had called him to serve to love and to shepherd. And in these ways, Mr. Olivetti has not been faithful to those solemn obligations.
D. Carr, B. Larson, and K. Magill’s Charges
The SJC report to Synod, included in the Minutes of Synod 2022, offer a summary of the accusation against D. Carr, B. Larson, and K. Magill. The report states that there were two accusations. In the first, they were accused of not shepherding the flock of Jesus Christ appropriately contrary to Scripture, the moral law, and the Covenant of Communicant Membership and the vows or ordination. This included endangering members of the flock and neglecting to willingly shepherd the flock. The second accusation alleged that they did not safeguard the or maintain the qualifications for the eldership. This included not being above reproach and not maintaining a good reputation. The charges against these men have not been included in any public documentation.
Instead of going to trial these men entered a mediated agreement wherein they pleaded guilty to the substance of the charges brought against them. The mediated agreement can be read here.
The contributor(s) understand this website to only be a place that provides and presents information that is public in nature, and draws attention to what that public information says.
For Peace, For Purity, and For Progress 