Rev. Moomaw Resigns Post in Surprise Move : Churches: Pastor expanded Bel-Air Presbyterian’s outreach programs for needy. He discloses no reason for decision.

Stunning his congregation and Presbyterian leaders throughout the West, the Rev. Donn D. Moomaw--pastor to former President Ronald Reagan--has resigned his 29-year ministry at Bel-Air Presbyterian Church.

There was no explanation from Moomaw or the financially strapped 2,400-member congregation. But the Rev. Charles W. Doak, the ranking Presbyterian clergyman in the Pacific Presbytery, which covers Los Angeles and Hawaii, said Monday that he had spoken with Moomaw and that Moomaw’s reasons were “powerful and persuasive.”

“The reasons are personal and they reflect a change in Donn’s life and a change in his perspective on who he is and his understanding of where God is now calling him to be,” Doak said in an interview. Doak declined to elaborate, saying that the specific reasons would have to come from Moomaw.

Moomaw, 61, an all-American lineman at UCLA in the 1950s who gained prominence when he offered prayers at both of Reagan’s presidential inaugurals, did not respond to interview requests.

A letter from Moomaw detailing his reasons for resigning was to be mailed today to congregation members, the church said.

Doak and others said Moomaw was saddened by having to lay off an estimated third of the church’s 50 to 60 full- and part-time staff members during the last several weeks. “The cuts were a difficult and painful decision,” Doak said.

In 1991, the church completed an eight-year building project to erect a new 1,500-seat sanctuary on Mulholland Drive, overlooking the San Fernando Valley, at a cost of $13.5 million, nearly twice the $7.9 million estimate.

Doak said the Bel-Air congregation raised a significant 15% of the Pacific Presbytery’s general mission budget for new church development, as well as outreach programs for AIDS victims, American Indians, residents of South-Central Los Angeles, students and others.

“Donn has taken such pride and done such a super job in having the church support different kinds of mission activities . . . that it must have been a real significant disappointment . . . to have to terminate staff so deeply, and maybe missions,” said Robert S. MacFarlane, a former classmate of Moomaw from Princeton Theological Seminary who lives in Pacific Palisades.

The Rev. Jack Springer, an associate pastor at the Bel-Air church, said he was not authorized to speak but confirmed that the staff layoffs were “in part” responsible for Moomaw’s decision.

Springer said it may take a pastor nominating committee as long as two years to find a replacement for Moomaw.

Frances Hollis, stated clerk for the Presbyterian Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, said Moomaw’s resignation “really caught me off guard.”

The Rev. Scott Erdman of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, who served at the Bel-Air congregation eight years ago, called Moomaw’s decision “a tremendous surprise and shock.”

The congregation’s governing body, known as the Session, has scheduled a congregational meeting Feb. 21 to act on Moomaw’s resignation. Any congregational action to concur would next have to be affirmed by the Pacific Presbytery, a regional governing body of the church.