Presbytery allowed Rev Ron Johnstone and Rev Marcus Lecky to make statements in Presbytery on 1st May. I only received on 22nd May a copy of what Rev Johnstone had said.
Presbytery Officers had given Rev Johnstone and Rev Lecky permission to make personal statements about myself and Rev David Linden, five days before the Presbytery took place on May 1st, but did not inform myself or Rev Linden that such would be happening.
That was a clear breach of Rule 10.5, which states:
‘Presbytery business will be strictly according to an agenda agreed and compiled by the moderator and clerk. In normal circumstances, any member who wishes to have a matter raised must notify the clerk no later than one week before the meeting.
The Moderator will read the agenda at the start of the Presbytery meeting. Any business relating to any member of Presbytery shall be brought to the member’s attention as soon as possible.’
There was a period of at least 5 days in which we should have been informed.
Rev Johnstone’s statement to Presbytery is some 2000 words long but there is scant reference to the Bible except for direct reference to a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It was verse 11.
There is NOT ONE verse which justifies his actions which I criticised in my article and which he is complaining to Presbytery about. But rather a verse which he implies is an indication of my character.
The verse in question reads:
“But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.”
He then quotes Albert Barnes, whose full comment on the element of this verse that Rev Johnstone highlights is:
“A reproachful man; a man of coarse, harsh, and bitter words; a man whose characteristic it was to abuse others; to vilify their character, and wound their feelings. It is needless to say how much this is contrary to the spirit of Christianity, and to the example of the Master, “who when he was reviled, reviled not again.”
It was repeatedly stated to me that Rev Johnstone, when making his statement to Presbytery, made no accusation against me.
Mr Johnstone delights in ‘oblique’ wording, but I can see no other meaning to his quoting the above verse than that he is applying it to me.
If that is the case, I can think of no greater accusation to be levelled against a minister, and yet the Commission has repeatedly stated that Rev Johnstone had levelled no charge against me in Presbytery!
I only received a copy of Mr Johnstone’s statement in the middle of the discussion with the two Commission ministers who came to see me on Friday 22nd, and was unable to read it until later, after my meeting with them had concluded.
Had I been aware of Mr Johnstone’s applying of 1 Corinthians 5:11 to me during that meeting, I would have asked the two men if that was not a charge?
If the verse he quotes indeed applies to me, then Presbytery should take immediate steps to cast me out!
Any minister who writes in defence of his actions WITHOUT clear references to God’s Word for support and vindication, must surely indicate that he cares little about justifying his ways from Scripture, or he is UNABLE to show that he has acted in obedience to God’s Word.
In response to what he said in Presbytery:
1. I ask Rev Ron Johnstone to show that he is correct and sanctioned by the Word of God in his repeated and very public fellowshipping with ‘evangelicals’ within the ecumenical movement.
These ministers are in membership of churches fully engaged in the ecumenical apostasy — the Presbyterian, Church of Ireland and Methodist denominations, and who thus endorse the complete disobedience of what the Lord commands in these verses among many others, regarding the Christian’s relationship with apostasy:
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” 2 Corinthians 6:14-17.
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,” Ephesians 5:11.
“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us,” 2 Thessalonians 3:6.
2. And further, can he show that such fellowshipping with disobedient ‘evangelicals’ is in keeping with his ordination oath and did he strongly maintain in their presence the position on Biblical separation from apostasy as taken by the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1951?
The oath states:
Will you maintain with all the strength God shall give you the position on Biblical separation from apostasy as taken by the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1951 at the time of its secession from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland?
As God helps you will you expose and resist the continued apostasy from Christ manifested within Irish Presbyterianism, Methodism, Episcopalianism and other visible church bodies; exhorting God’s people to obey the teaching and commandment of 1 Timothy 6: 3-5?
If he can give a positive and Scriptural response to these two questions, then I stand condemned for criticising his fellowshipping with evangelical ministers who are in clear disobedience to God!
Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Monday 25th May 2026