Georgia church finalizes PCUSA dismissal

The Layman Online

Georgia church finalizes PCUSA dismissal

By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, Posted Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Georgia church has wrapped up its dismissal process to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

Members of Parkway Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Ga. met with an administrative commission from the Cherokee Presbytery on Oct. 24 to finalize its dismissal process.

On June 26, Parkway’s congregation agreed to leave the PCUSA by a vote of 273-14.

The church cites the PCUSA’s May adoption of Amendment 10A as one factor in its decision. The measure deletes the chastity/fidelity ordination clause from the Book of Order, and will allow presbyteries to ordain gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender candidates as ministers, elders and deacons. In November, Cherokee Presbytery voted down 10A by a vote of 49-62.

“Our decision to leave the PCUSA was not easy or taken lightly,” Parkway Clerk of Session Eloise Newton said in an August letter to the presbytery. “However, with the recent decisions by the PCUSA and their continued direction, the path chosen by our congregation is a clear one. As a confessing church, and staying true to the original confessions under which we were formed, there are several principles that are non-negotiable and we feel are in conflict with the direction that PCUSA is taking.”

During its July meeting, the presbytery agreed to establish a coordinating team to investigate Parkway’s request and report back to the presbytery in September.

The team presented the following recommendation on Sept. 27:

• “Approve Parkway’s request to be dismissed with title, assets and liabilities to the Presbytery of the Southeast of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
• “In light of the Parkway’s willingness to provide a fiscal gift, that Cherokee Presbytery make no efforts to collect the $202,525.80 that would be owed had Cherokee Presbytery’s Gracious Dismissal policy been in place.
• “Designate any financial gift received from Parkway for the Tri-Presbytery New Church Development Commission.”

Had Cherokee attempted to stop the dismissal and seek Parkway’s property – which is valued at $2.4 million – the presbytery would have also been saddled with the church’s $2.37 million debt.

Currently, the church’s debt service is $180,000 -- roughly 24 percent of its income.

“If Parkway is not dismissed, it is very likely that many members will leave, and the remaining members will not be able to make the loan payments” the coordinating commission told presbytery officials. “In that event, Parkway would lose the property,” it added, pointing out that the debt service alone would represent one-third of presbytery’s annual budget.

According to presbytery documents, the Tri-presbytery New Church Development Commission gave Parkway $1.5 million for start-up costs in 1996. Under a proposed dismissal policy, Parkway would have owed $202,525 to Cherokee.

In lieu of that amount, Parkway has agreed to make an as-yet undetermined financial gift to the development fund in the future.
“We recognize that there will be some members of the presbytery that will be looking for a specific figure, and the best we are able to do at this time is make you aware of our desire to continue our friendships, grow together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and commit to sharing that love in a fiscal capacity in the future,” Newton told the presbytery.

The church recorded 475 members in 2010 and collected $739,375 in offerings.

For January-August, Cherokee Presbytery recorded income of $500,630 and expenses of $524,726.

In related news, Cherokee’s Committee on Ministry (COM) has approved a policy that could affect pastors and churches seeking future dismissals.
Approved on Sept. 13, the policy states that, after an investigation, if a pastor in the presbytery is “found to have publicly announced their intention to leave with all or part of the congregation, the COM will determine that by the action of leading the way to dissolution, the minister has renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church USA.”

The COM also stated that it would not dismiss members of the presbytery as ministers in good standing if such a minister is judged to be schismatic. The COM defined a “schismatic” minister as “one who foments a congregation’s departure from the PC USA by misinformation or words of undue influence toward leaving this denomination and who plans to leave the PCUSA with the congregation and continue ministry with that community.”

So, here are the four ways forward:

Tier one: remain in the Presbyterian Church USA. For those teaching elders and churches who find themselves in a context where they are free to pursue mission in good conscience, this is the best and least disruptive option.

Tier two: creating overlay presbyteries. For teaching elders and churches who find themselves in a context that will cause their conscience to be violated, there is the possibility (under the new Form of Government) of forming evangelical presbyteries or an evangelical synod. Overlay presbyteries have the same geographical footprint as existing PCUSA presbyteries, but would be comprised of evangelical pastors and churches.

Tier three: creating a presbytery within a presbytery. One presbytery with two Committees on Preparation for Ministry and Ministry. This idea seems to be almost a non-starter. The thought is that one set of committees would be evangelical and one would not be. The problem is that this doesn’t protect the conscience of evangelicals because in the case of the ordination of someone in a same sex relationship, the ordination is still an act of the whole presbytery even though it is delegated to an Administrative Commission.

Forming a new reformed body. In January 2012 a new reformed body will come into existence at a Constitutional Convention in Orlando, FL This will basically be a new presbyterian denomination committed to evangelical theology in the reformed tradition and the goodness of women’s exercising their ministry gifts in ordained office in the church. Churches and clergy may be dismissed from the PCUSA to this new body (which will be minimalist in structure, something that doesn’t characterize the Presbyterian Church USA) or may jointly affiliate with the PCUSA (as a union church). There is good reason to hope that this new reformed body may assist in greater reformed ecumenism — specifically enhanced partnership with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America (among others).

I found this part on: PCUSA – The same old, same old is no more | Two Tasks

Church within Church? Lets see how that works. I wonder if the traditional catholics tried that.

Response from Dan Wolpert, May 12, 2011
MN
I've always felt that making ordination standards about one issue is an enormous error and distracts the majority from confession, repentance, and accountability in their spiritual life. We ordain people who: don't tithe, are mean, are divorced, don't come to church much, never participate in mission, abuse their kids, love war and violence, just to mention a few things. All of these are behaviors that go against Biblical teachings and what God wants, yet we turn a blind eye because they are the sins of the majority and not a specific minority. If we only ordained those who actually practiced Christianity as Jesus preached, we wouldn't have enough folks to fill our Sessions. I would suggest we quite worrying about this one issue and start trying to practice our faith.
Peace,
Dan

I found this comment here

No one is perfect. But if these behaviors indicated that the person was not actually trying to live the Christian life, no, they wouldn't be qualified for ministry. The difference here is that Scripture repeatedly condemns sexual immorality, from Genesis through Revelation, and specifically says it is incompatible with being a minister and with having the Holy Spirit. Yet the PCUSA has now said you can be an active adulterer, fornicator, engaging in homosexual sex, or other sexual immorality and be qualified for ordination. That is a non-starter for Christians in the PCUSA. This is a black-and-white issue for Christians. There is no way to justify it other than saying the Bible does not have authority in the Church, which is repudiating the Gospel.

I got replies from different sections on whom can do water baptism on me and who can break bread. The replies or different from each denomination and confirms many disagreements among each other. Speaking of ordination, Whom can ordain me if I wanted to preach to my neighbors? I'm curious what the reformed answers would be without falling into the Catholic traditions rituals. Perhaps I can ordain myself.

I'm seriously considering the reply that quoted a moderator saying, "You're old fashion". "Too old fashion" might be the right approach to dealing with the future of our new regeneration. I would believe the Bible has more different culture types than the conservatives think.

I doubt ordinations are by a physical touch of higher level priesthood above or a diploma from the School of Sudden Enlightment.

I agree with you entirely!