Dear Members of First Miami Presbyterian Church,

I pray that you are all healthy at the start of this new year and have peace amidst the current chaos in the world.

I know many of you personally and some of you have heard from me in the last few months regarding the happenings of First Miami Presbyterian. I have also heard from many of you that we have not had enough information from church leadership.

Therefore, I am asking each of you to please support my effort to request of the Administrative Commission (AC) over First Miami Presbyterian Church (FMPC) that an in-person congregational meeting be called and scheduled for a convenient Sunday soon. If 25% of the church membership requests a meeting, we can have one.

The purpose of this meeting would be so that the congregation can discuss with the AC the following:

1. Why the annual congregational meetings required by our bylaws have not been held since the AC took over (with the exception of one meeting to vote on the sale of the property).
2. How the AC has addressed the need to nominate and elect deacons during the time the AC has been acting as session.
3. The current and past financial situation at the church from December 2019 to current including the current contract between the AC and Pastor Benek as the FMPC transitional pastor.
4. Status of the real estate transaction to sell church property and how the church is complying with the Synod stay while it continues to address the filed remedial complaint which produced the stay.
5. Plans for reopening the church and plans for returning the session back into the hands of elected session members.

These are all important topics for the congregation, and we need to ask the AC to do what it has not done since it took over—hold meetings of the congregation so that the foregoing matters can be discussed openly with full transparency.

Thank you very much for you concern. Fortunately, in the Presbyterian process the church members have real influence over the affairs of the church in a structure which, I believe, Jesus would be proud of.

Sincerely,
Scott Shuffield