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Note #8037 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Montreat executive gets pink slip
03527
December 4, 2003

Montreat executive gets pink slip

New center president fires VP Odom, citing poor 'chemistry'

by John Filiatreau

LOUISVILLE - The Rev. Emily Enders Odom, vice president for planning and
administration of the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina, has been
fired.

	Odom, who joined the Montreat staff in 1996 as an associate director,
was informed of her termination on Monday by George Barber III, the center's
president since September. Her dismissal will be effective on Jan. 8.

	Odom, who was in charge of programming at the center, was fired after
refusing Barber's request to resign. According to Odom, Barber said her
dismissal was not disciplinary or "for cause," but was motivated by poor
"chemistry" between her and himself.

	Barber told the Presbyterian News Service on Dec. 4 that Odom had
been "dismissed without prejudice" as part of a "restructuring of our
management team," adding that center policy precludes any further comment on
his part.

	Odom, a former pastor with more than 10 years' experience in
advertising, public relations and television documentary production, will
receive one month's severance pay.

	In a letter to center staff, Barber, a certified public accountant
and an elder at Balmoral Presbyterian Church in Memphis, wrote that Odom is
leaving "to pursue other opportunities." He added that he and other center
executives "are considering a number of options for future staffing as we
look for the best ways to fulfill the responsibilities which were Emily's."

	The firing also means that Odom and her husband, the Rev. John L.
Odom, associate pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, NC,
will no longer plan and lead the center's summer worship program, as they
have for several years.

	Odom, who said the dismissal came as a shock, said she objects mostly
to "the callous and abrupt way I was summarily dismissed ... with no
conversation ... and no opportunity to correct what (Barber) perceives to be
wrong."

	She said she and Barber barely know each other. When she told him she
was "open to being in partnership with him," she said, Barber told her there
was no point in trying to accommodate his wishes because "you can't change
your personality."

	Odom, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York, said she
"got much fairer treatment in the advertising world," and is disappointed "to
be treated so shabbily after sticking tough through some pretty challenging
administrations" at Montreat.

	She said she was told to vacate her office by the end of this week.

	"It's all so surreal, coming here at Christmastime," she said.

	The Montreat center has been in a state of financial crisis for
nearly a decade because of declining conference revenues, mounting operating
expenses and a burgeoning deficit.

	Financial difficulties forced the center to lay off six employees in
July.

	James Henderson, who became interim president in February, said in a
report earlier this year that 2002 expenditures for program activities were
up $370,000 (29 percent) from 2001, and total operating expenses were up by
nearly $1 million (33 percent).

	Odom said her employment at Montreat was a "validated call" endorsed
by the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, and questioned whether Barber
could dismiss her without the concurrence of the presbytery's committee on
ministry.

	Presbytery Executive Bill Taber said Odom is a minister member in
good standing, "and we do want to be in pastoral care with her." However, he
added, "We don't have the authority, or the responsibility, or the desire, to
try to make decisions where we do not have adequate information." He said
presbytery officials must "trust that (the center) is operating appropriately
as a church agency."

	In a letter to her colleagues, Odom wrote: "As I depart, I give
thanks to God for the opportunity of having served here. ... As I depart, I
do so with abiding faith in the amazing grace of my Savior Jesus Christ. The
grace which has brought me safe thus far. The grace that will lead me home."

	Al Dimmock, a member of the center's board of directors, commended
Odom for "her deep spiritual commitment" and "superb dedication" during her
more than seven years at Montreat. "This was her call," he said. "It wasn't
just a job."

	Dimmock said the firing - which he called "a sore point with me" - is
part of "a struggle we are facing here at Montreat, between financial support
and spiritual concerns." He said the center is now dominated by "money
people" whose chief concern is "balancing the budget and keeping the place
open," rather than providing "inspiration and spiritual training" to the
people who attend events there.

	"It's not financial support that brings people here," he said. "It is
the program that brings people to Montreat. ... A car salesman can't balance
the budget and keep his place open unless he's got a product people want to
buy."

	Among those who have sent supportive messages to Odom on learning of
her dismissal was theologian Walter Brueggemann, who wrote: "I am so dismayed
and disappointed to learn of your departure from Montreat."

	Brueggemann, who was scheduled to be one of the headliners of next
summer's Reclaiming the Text Conference at Montreat, said he intends to scale
back his involvement because "your departure means that the heart goes out of
it for me." Brueggemann said he will conduct only one workshop, rather than
the two that were scheduled, and "will not do a sermon as we had planned."

	Brueggemann has written elsewhere that the annual Reclaiming the Text
conference organized by Odom is "an event that will be a defining moment for
so many participants, and perhaps a defining moment in the history of
preaching in the U.S. church."

	Montreat, created in 1897, is one of three national conference
centers affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Each year it serves as
host to more than 35 conferences and retreats attended by more than 30,000
people.

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