Newspaper Article

Prophet falls
By Bill Alnor
Delaware County Daily Times September 1, 1986

Several years ago, Boothwyn architect Greg Martz was at the right hand of a man he considered to be a modern day prophet.

Together he and the "prophet," the Rev. Frederick .Drummond, senior minister of the Church of Our Saviour in Concordville, worked to make Drummond's plans for a worldwide religious empire come true.

For five years Martz, 33, and his wife, Jane, gave their lives to Drummond believing they were select vessels in God's plan to bring revival to the East Coast.

While Greg worked hard at the drafting table, Jane was an active, obedient member, serving in numerous church activities, including its phone ministry.

Today, they believe they were led astray by a vulgar, profane, false prophet who confused his own wants and desires with God's.

Among the troubling things they say they saw in the church were: children beaten with rubber hoses; members abused verbally -- often from the pulpit during sermons -- by Drummond and his assistants; and families encouraged to break up or sever ties with relatives.

Last December, Martz - who is employed by a Center City architectural firm - and Jane and their two children became one of dozens of families to leave the church since the end of 1985. The church roll has fallen to about 200, which may be its all-time low.

Now, they've decided to make their story public. They said they hope other members of the Church of Our Saviour are listening.

In a recent interview at their apartment, they reflected that they can't believe they were a part of Drummond's church for so long. It was as if they were in a fog, "brainwashed," they said.

Rev. Drummond did not return a phone call to give his version of this story.

He has told his flock that a revival on the East Coast spearheaded exclusively by the Church of Our Saviour will not come until after the church goes through a period of "fiery persecution," mostly at the hands of newspapers and "fundamentalist Christians" from other area churches.

It was 1980 when the Martzes - originally from the Poconos - were "saved" and moved to the Philadelphia area so Greg could study architecture at Drexel University.

As young Christians, they were interested in finding a new church home and getting involved in Bible studies. After they met John Tolbert (former attorney for the church) and were invited to visit the church, they decided that's where they wanted to be. They were enchanted by all the excited talk of bringing revival to the East Coast, they said.

`Me first thing I noticed -- and it continued for the five years I was there -- was I was told not to question. Over time it got ingrained into me," said Greg. "I later thought I shouldn't be thinking that because I was being rebellious."

Martz said Drummond took a personal interest in his architectural talents and put him to work: At first the projects were small. But over time they became more and more extravagant.

Just before the Martzes left, Greg drafted plans for an elaborate expansion of the church's Concordville campus, which would involve annexing much of the surrounding land.

As the campus grew, so would their political base, said Greg:

"He wanted a political base to control the township," said Greg of Drummond. "He would throw (Concord building inspector) Elmer Edge and (township manager) Jack Cornell out. He was going to be the Bahgwan to remove Jack and Elmer of their duties, particularly since they dared to cite the church with building violations."

The plans, elaborated in a "Master Plan" booklet dated Oct. 17, 1983, called for a 10,000 seat auditorium, a teachers' college, a sports complex, a "town" to house the faculty and a new mansion for the pastor with a heliport nearby. Total cost of the project, the plan states: $52 million.

More recently, Martz worked on plans for the new "world headquarters" of the Church of Our Saviour which was to be at the site of the St. Charles Roman Catholic Seminary on City Line Ave., Philadelphia.

Former members said Drummond told his flock that God told him that his church would acquire the seminary. In anticipation, Drummond asked Martz to draft plans which would include skyscrapers on the site, a heliport, and college dorms, Martz said. Drummond even ordered cost studies done on the area's highway systems and how much it would cost to create ramps to rechannel the traffic pattern on City Line Avenue to accommodate the thousands of anticipated visitors to the complex.

(In an previous story, the Daily Times quoted former members who said that when Cardinal John Krol refused to sell or give the seminary to Drummond certain members began praying that God would "take out" or remove Krol.)

None of Drummond's plans for the church ever came true, said Martz. Yet he was so brainwashed that he continued to serve Drummond.

In once instance, according to Martz, Drummond asked him to design a pulpit that would place Drummond towering over the congregation to deliver his sermons. At the cost of several thousand dollars, the pulpit - equipped with a ladder - was built. But after Drummond used it for several months he decided he didn't like it and ordered it trashed in a dump behind the administration building, Martz said.