Question about member migration from PCUSA to PCA

[desmalia]

Baptist here, poking my head in to ask a question.
I'm not looking for any sort of debate, and will not engage in such if that's the direction the thread takes. I know I am a guest here.

As some of you know from the Semper forum, I work at a PCC church, which is closely tied to the PCUSA.

What I have noticed is that the current congregation at this PCC church is largely made up of people who left the United churches when they began ordaining homosexuals. That was the dividing line for them. So they're still quite liberal in most areas and not terribly concerned about doctrine (from what I have seen), but this one issue was too much for them to accept. The move over to the PCC was fairly seamless as that's one issue the PCC has not compromised on quite yet. (Though all signs point to it happening sooner than later as well...)

It occurred to me that this same thing must be happening in the US with PCUSA members migrating to PCA churches over the gay ordination issue. Am I correct? Is this happening a lot? And if so, how is it affecting the PCA churches? Is there any trend to cater to these new, more liberal members?

 

[hedrick]

Close. But the PCA is significantly more conservative. E.g. it requites closer to full subscription to Westminster. There are PCUSA congregations that were uncomfortable anyway. Some (but certainly not all) were originally from the southern church before the merger. Some of them are going to the PCA. But one big problem is that female church officers suddenly lose their ordination.

More churches are moving to the EPC. This is also a fairly conservative group but it allows presbyteries to allow female officers.

More recently a third option has opened up: a new pseudo-denomination. You can withdraw from the PCUSA and joint it as your primary affiliation. But it can also be used as an affinity group for people staying within the PCUSA. It is probably going to be theologically very similar to the PCUSA, but without gay ordination, though I think it will be a bit more conservative on average.

There's yet another option. There are presbyteries that as a whole maintain the old standard. That may be good enough for some churches. And there are proposals for allowing non-geographical presbyteries.

So the situation here is fairly complex. There are several options, and developments aren't finished.

Furthermore, at some point the PCUSA will surely allow gay marriage. If we're going to have gay officers, many of us will want them to obey the usual standards. while one might think this would be regarded as an improvement, it's not. Conservatives will see it as another offense, and it will cause new dissention and possibly more churches leaving.

My estimate has always been that we'd probably end up losing about 10% of our congregations. It's hard to know when things will stabilize but that may still be about right. It may, however, be more than 10% of members, though we'll see.

 

[Nova Scotian Boy]

From what i have heard there are few PCUSA Churches migrating over to the PCA. They consider the PCA to conservative. So they are going to the EPC but a large majority are joining this new denomination they are forming.

 

[desmalia]

Interesting. Thanks guys.