Presbyterian Church (USA) fires two officials

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two officials of the Presbyterian Church (USA) who were part of a controversial delegation that met with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon have been fired.

Church officials, however, would not say if the firings of Kathy Lueckert and Peter Sulyok were related to the Middle East visit. After angry criticism from Jewish groups, church leaders called the visit “misguided at best” and said statements by the alleged terrorist group were “reprehensible.”

The firings were announced Nov. 11 by John Detterick, executive director of the church’s General Assembly Council, which acts as the church’s board of directors. He said legal restrictions kept him from disclosing details. Lueckert was Detterick’s deputy and was essentially the church’s No. 3 official. Sulyok coordinated the church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, which arranged the visit.The visit, which included a stop at a Hezbollah-run camp in Southern Lebanon, came on the heels of the church’s controversial decision to consider financial divestment in companies doing business in Israel. Jewish groups were angered that church officials said “relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders.”