Many Free Presbyterians will be shocked to learn that Rev David DiCanio has been ‘deposed from the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America for the sin of contumacy.’ The sin he is charged with is a ‘stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority.’
Below is a statement which my son, Rev Andy Foster, read to his congregation in Penticton in response to the decision of the Presbytery of FPCNA, which we have also included.
I am most happy to be in total agreement with what my son says and to follow his lead and that of Rev Stephen Hamilton, both of whom have been to the fore in opposing the utter folly of the leadership of the FPCNA in this matter. This decision is the result of a ‘pandering’ by leaders of the FPCNA to the demands of some prominent ministers here in the Ulster Presbytery.
The exposure by Rev DiCanio of the use of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ within some of our congregations here in Ulster, in the video he sent out, referred to by Rev Andy Foster in his statement, stirred the ire of the ministers and those involved in this sin.
However, the FPCNA has in its statement on worship a clear denunciation of CCW music. The relevant portion is quoted in Rev Andy Foster’s statement below.
The Ulster Presbytery, being in union with the FPCNA, is in agreement with that position on this worldly and unscriptural form of worship.
Yet prominent members of our Ulster Presbytery sided with the users of CCM within our congregations and ‘secretly’ demanded that the FPCNA act against Rev David DiCanio.
The result of that pressure has been the unscriptural and unjust dismissal of a man of God who has faithfully laboured to establish a thriving missionary witness in Liberia on the contrived basis that he refused to repent of that which in essence is but his obedience to God’s Word.
His ‘sin’ is denouncing that which is considered a sin in the stated standards of the Free Presbyterian Church in a fashion displeasing to his accusers.
Dr Paisley was often criticised for his ‘methodology’. Critics would say to him that they agreed with his opposition to the trends of the day but they didn’t like his methods! His reply was simple! ‘What method do you use?’ Of course they had none! To this he responded that he would just stick to his method until they could come up with something better.
Those who have condemned David DiCanio HAVE NOT DENOUNCED ‘CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC’ in any public fashion. Is this the method they would have David DiCanio and any who share his convictions adopt!
For many years now the drift from the principles and practices adopted by the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1951 has been taking place.
It reached a decisive zenith in 2007 when the then Moderator, Dr Ian Paisley, sadly abandoned Scriptural truth and entered a power-sharing agreement with the murderous terrorist supporting Sinn Fein party, which was and still is inextricably linked to the Provisional IRA!
That most sadly and disappointingly wrong decision by a man who had been greatly used and blessed by the Lord, gave encouragement to those who bore some resemblance to that generation of Israelites referred to in Judges 2:10. “And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.”
There can be no doubt that there has been a wilful forgetting of what the Lord did here in Ulster in the early days of the Free Presbyterian Church and also in the more recent times of blessing in the 1960s and 1970s.
The use of CCW is but one evidence of a desire to depart from the “old paths, where is the good way,” Jeremiah 6:16. There is a casual attitude toward the ministers’ and elders’ ‘Ordination Oath’ and a separation from worldliness and fellowship commanded of God and communion with ministers of ecumenical churches and the holding of gospel missions with such. This amounts to an endorsing of the disobedience to God’s call to separation from error and heresy by those ecumenically involved ministers.
These things and more are signs of the slide within our church.
The ‘deposing’ of a man of God has been the inevitable result of this unchecked slide. It will not stop at this wickedness. It can only get worse.
I have been made to think back to the ‘1927 heresy trial’ of Professor J E Davey, of which the action of the FPCNA has some resemblance to that shameful and ultimately fatal action by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Davey was charged, quite rightly, with heresy by Rev James Hunter and others. During that trial, imposed ‘secrecy’ was a prominent feature and the full facts of the wickedness of J E Davey was not truly brought before the members of the PCI.
The actions of the FPCNA have been carried on in a like secrecy so that many will be shocked at the dismissal of Rev DiCanio from the gospel ministry.
In a wonderful examination and exposure of the chicanery of the leaders of the PCI during Davey’s trial, Rev James Edgar wrote a book entitled, ‘Presbyterianism on Trial’. He uncovers the deceit employed by those determined to preserve and defend the wickedness that Rev James Hunter and others wished to expose.
Here is one quote from the ’Northern Whig’, an Ulster newspaper which went out of production in 1963. “When Mr J C Graham asked in the Assembly, ‘There have been misstatements made. Have the accusers the right of replying?’ the Clerk’s answer was ‘No’ ”
Such a spirit of repressing any questioning of certain events in recent years have, according to many ministers, been all too evident in our Presbytery affairs!
I state clearly that the spirit that gave rise to ‘Daveyism’ is slowly emerging within the Free Presbyterian Church.
This decision to cast Rev David DiCanio out of the gospel ministry for obeying God, must be opposed and the actions of those guilty of contriving at his dismissal, examined and adjudicated upon in the light of Holy Scripture.
If that is not done then I have no doubt whatever that the ‘Only King and Head of the Church’ will take matters into His hands and act.
We need to ever bear in mind His words to the Churches in Asia.
“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent,” Revelation 2:5.
“Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth,” Revelation 2:16.
“Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee,” Revelation 3:3.
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth,” Revelation 3:15-16.
These warnings and threats are not to be taken lightly or dismissed as subsequently events in Asia prove. Remember the Lord’s dealings with the disobedient in the Corinthian Church!
“Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (condemnation) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged,” 1 Corinthians 11:27-31.
The Lord Jesus is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever,” Hebrews 13:8. We must never forget this or we will pay a heavy price for our folly. We have the attitude and response of the leadership of the FPCNA, NOW what is our response to that attitude toward the ‘old religion’? Do we stand with them or resist them, come what may, for the honour of the Lord and the preservation of His cause?
That which has begun with an embracing of the error of CCM will not end there. If not stopped in the manner appointed by the Lord, then it will spread like a plague.
History and above all, the Bible teaches us that. The unheeded early warnings of the likes of Hosea and Isaiah gave way to the dreadful pronouncements of Jeremiah!
“Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy,” Jeremiah 15:1-3.
At the beginning of the Saviour’s ministry, the opposition of those who were far from God was manifested. In the very town in which He spent his early years we read of the bitter opposition shown toward His message. “And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way,” Luke 4:29-30.
But those enemies increased in their hatred and enmity and that love of the lie and sin resulted in the Saviour’s crucifixion! That is the way of sin. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,” James 1:14-15.
That is how this love of CCM and the bitter opposition to any criticism of it will end — the death of the Free Presbyterian Church Biblical distinctives, brought into being by the Lord in 1951.
The drift and decline, the beginnings of a sad replica of the apostasy of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, is the fruit of compromise and weakness on the part of those leaders who have failed in their stewardship to guard the precious truths of the crown rights of King Jesus and the precious jewels of His gospel.
Prayer
Prayer is needed for the leadership of our denomination, both for those who seem determined to disregard the teaching of God’s Word and our own Church Standards and also those whose task, before God, is to stand up and speak out in order to stop the ever accelerating sell-out of gospel truth.
Prayer is also needed by David DiCanio. I do not know what means he has of surviving now that he is deprived of the income he received as a missionary.
Pray earnestly that the Lord will undertake for him!
Courage is needed to day as it was in the day of Joab’s leading of Israel against the combined forces of the Syrians and the children of Ammon. Joab’s cry needs to be heard again by those who love the Lord Jesus and His cause today!
“Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good,” 2 Samuel 10:12.
Sincerely in the Saviour’s name,
Ivan Foster
8th December 2024
FPCNA Presbytery statement about Rev. David DiCanio’s disciplinary proceedings, issued December 4th, 2024, and presented to the congregation on December 8th, 2024.
“Further to the presbytery statement regarding Rev. David DiCanio’s suspension from ministry, issued to churches October 12, 2024, the appointed Judicial Commission met and found Rev. DiCanio guilty of contumacy against the presbytery of the FPCNA. He was admonished to repent of the sin of contumacy. The Judicial Commission report was ratified by presbytery on November 25, 2024.
After one week’s reflection, Rev. DiCanio indicated that he would not comply with the admonition and thus was duly deposed from the ministry of the FPCNA for the sin of contumacy.
The mission work in Liberia is managed through a non-governmental organization, which works under the presbytery Mission Board. The NGO is responsible for the management of the deposition.”
The Response of Rev. Andy Foster
Background
The above statement was released by the Executive Committee of the FPCNA to inform the churches under its care of how the disciplinary proceedings against Rev. David DiCanio had concluded. The statement contains little information about how such a serious outcome as the termination of a long-term minister and missionary for sinful rebellion, actually came about.
The background to this decision and verdict is easily stated. Late in 2023 Mr. DiCanio produced a video featuring publicly available video clips that demonstrated the very obvious infiltration of various Free Presbyterian congregations in N. Ireland and several associated ministries, by contemporary worship music (CWM). The video footage of Free Presbyterian events and the activities of associated ministries which he used in his production had originally been published online by the churches and organizations themselves on various internet platforms and social media sites. Presented as such, without commentary, and forwarded to a number of FPCoU ministers who were involved in the use of CWM in their services, the video was an obvious rebuke to the compromise with the world which CWM represents. Several complaints about his video presentation resulted in disciplinary proceedings being launched by the FPCNA against Mr. DiCanio at the request of officials in the Ulster Presbytery. As his trial proceeded he was eventually cleared of any breach of Presbytery procedure and instead, was charged and found guilty of a sinful violation of Scriptural teaching concerning the rebuke of sin by a minister.
In considering what has happened in Mr. DiCanio’s case there are two very important points to keep in mind.
I. THE BIBLICAL DUTY OF A PREACHER
The Scripture plainly teaches that God’s ministers have a duty to publicly expose public sin. A faithful minister must expose the sin of the church as well as the sin of the world! A primary example of this in action with reference to a Christian is seen in Galatians 2:11-14. Peter’s hypocrisy and failure to act according to the gospel, brought a public rebuke from Paul. Such rebuke, even of a gospel minister as Peter was, is not merely to be dismissed as the exclusive prerogative of an apostle, and, therefore, not appropriate today. Paul commands Timothy, who was no apostle, to do exactly the same thing in the setting of the local church which he pastored, 1 Timothy 5:19-20. Charges of sin against an elder in the church are to be handled carefully, yet where sin in the life of an elder is proven and public – in this case having been witnessed by two or three observers – then Timothy was to rebuke that sin before all. The effect of this was that all would benefit and fear sinning in the same way. The Saviour Himself also demonstrates the same procedure, again in Peter’s case, in Mark 8:33. Before all the disciples He denounces Peter’s sinful words in the strongest possible way, denouncing him as doing the devil’s work! Such an example sets a precedent for Christ’s servants. The epistles to the seven churches of Asia are another case in point. John, at the Saviour’s dictation, points out, sometimes in very strong terms, the sins and failures of the minister of each church in the most public fashion! Those denunciations are still a matter of public record as part of the Scripture. Yet, when Mr. DiCanio discharged this Biblical responsibility, his actions were found to be sinful by the Presbytery Commission that investigated him and ruled on his case.
II. CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP MUSIC (CWM) IS SINFUL.
It must also be emphasized that CWM is a sinful departure from the Biblical worship of God. It is undoubtedly driven by a spirit of compromise with the world and carnal sensuality. It is a form of worship that requires rebuke from God’s ministers because its spirit, motivation and activities are condemned by Scripture. It is a form of worship which is essentially idolatrous because it imposes the offerings of the world upon the worship of God.
The FPCNA constitutional document Separated unto the Gospel contains the following statement which indicates the historical position of the FPCoU and FPCNA on this matter.
‘The music we use in our worship (whether vocal or instrumental) clearly reveals that we are “new creatures in Christ,” that old things have passed away and all things have become new. The devil has his own music, which the world–wittingly or unwittingly–employs to honor him. But we believe that this kind of music has no place in the life of the Church, which is not to be “conformed to this world,” but “transformed” into the image of Christ (Rom. 12:2). We reject the modern-day notion that says in order to reach the world with the gospel, we need to use the world’s music. We therefore refuse to use Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and any style of music that, in our estimation, not only denigrates Christ and His gospel, but also reflects the spirit of the world, a spirit that is given over to entertainment instead of to the worship of God and the edification of the saints.’
[Separated unto the Gospel, Principles of Worship section]When gospel ministers, Free Presbyterian or otherwise, and their congregations endorse and promote that which is ‘the devil’s own music’, as the statement above indicates Free Presbyterians have historically believed CWM to be, they must be exposed and rebuked publicly for their sin, as the Saviour rebuked Peter for doing the devil’s work, by all those who would remain faithful to God.
Found guilty despite acting Biblically
In spite of the fact that he followed the example and teaching of Paul, and even the exemplary practice of the Lord Jesus, in his exposure of CWM in Free Presbyterian congregations in N. Ireland, Mr. DiCanio was found guilty of sin by the FPCNA Presbytery. The verdict of the Judicial Commission appointed by Presbytery, required him to acknowledge that what he had done was sinful, requiring also public repentance; and when he refused to do so, he was further charged with contumacy (rebellion). This charge of rebellious contumacy was later extended to include Mr. DiCanio’s subsequent refusal to attend the Presbytery meeting in October 2024 as he had been instructed. Yet the initial charge of contumacy was Presbytery’s response to his refusal to acknowledge that what he had done, by exposing the evil influence of CWM, was sinful. In reality, he could not repent of action which was carried out in obedience to the word of God! For continuing to maintain his innocence in the light of Scripture, he was found guilty on a charge of rebellion, and expelled from his office (deposed).
In taking the decision to depose Mr. DiCanio, the Presbytery of the FPCNA has, therefore, declared it to be sinful for its ministers to follow the Biblical patterns and commands referenced above. Further, it has declared itself to be ready to expel from its ranks any who, by following these Biblical patterns and commands, act to expose sin in the church.
A decision to be opposed
I do not hesitate to say that the Presbytery of the FPCNA has acted wrongly in this and is collectively in disobedience to God’s word. Sadly, by a public act of disobedience to Scripture, it now finds itself in the position of being liable to public censure by any minister who would remain faithful to God. Compelled by what the Scripture so clearly teaches, and with a desire to distance myself from a decision which must surely offend God, I must speak out publicly against this foolish and sinful decision. I will be registering my views, expressed in this statement, with the Executive Committee of our Presbytery.
Andrew Foster
Penticton Free Presbyterian Church