FLORIDA
New Times
By Kyle Swenson Thu., Aug. 1 2013
For the past year, a pastor at a Boca Raton church has been serving up the good word from the pulpit while higher-ups in the faith look into allegations that he was sexually involved with a teenager in the 1980s.
Kirk A. McCormick has been a pastor for the past 18 years at Grace Community Church, a Presbyterian congregation on West Camino Real. But in early June, the pastor abruptly “renounced the jurisdiction” of the congregation’s parent body, the Presbyterian Church (USA).
McCormick’s decision came just as testimony was to begin in an inner-church trial over the accusations. By bailing from the faith, McCormick dodged the proceedings — which leaves the matter in a kind of unresolved middle ground.
The allegations stem from McCormick’s time as an assistant pastor at a church in Newport Beach, California, in the late 1980s, when McCormick was in his late 20s. The alleged victim was a 17-year-old member of the church’s youth group at the time. It wasn’t until 2012, in a letter addressed to the church in California, that she revealed her alleged sexual relationship with McCormick.
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