Group leaves Presbyterian Church to form ‘reformed’ denomination
January 20, 2012 at 6:44 AM by AHN · 2 Comments
Orlando, FL, United States (AHN) – Some members of the Presbyterian Church have created a new denomination they say is a “reformed body” with “accountable relationships” among its leaders. The move comes less than a year after the church became the latest Christian denomination to allow gays and lesbians to be ordained as ministers.
In a conference in Orlando that was to end on Friday, the breakaway group introduced the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO) to thousands of participants from more than 500 Presbyterian congregations nationwide.
Membership in the new denomination will require dismissal from the Presbyterian Church. Congregations that choose not to completely leave the church can either become a ministry association or a union member.
ECO is the result of dissatisfaction among a group of pastors who joined together a year ago amid controversy over the Presbyterian Church’s bureaucracy and a decision to allow gays to be ordained as clergy.
Apart from such theological dispute that “creates a culture of contention more than vitality,” the new group is concerned about the decline in membership in the Presbyterian Church in the last four decades and a complex leadership structure that has only 7 percent of pastors younger than 40.
“We are not angry, we are determined,” the Rev. John Crosby, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, MN, told the Presbyterian News Service. “We are not ‘after’ or ‘against’ them… We want to flesh out the options and then let God lead so we have the sense that we’re all working together.”
The new denomination was launched despite an appeal from Presbyterian leaders. Eight elders of the church wrote a letter last week seeking to assuage unhappy congregations.
“We believe with all our hearts that perception is not reality, that the PC(USA) has not left its moorings,” the elders said. “Ephesians also reminds us that God’s work is, in part, to continue to equip the church to build itself up into maturity.”
“Is the PC(USA) undergoing a season of change? For certain,” they added. “We are feeling the birthpangs of a new church.. But those changes are much broader than the divisive debates of recent years… We understand that it’s difficult not knowing exactly where we’re going to end up.
“But the road we are on, in seeking to proclaim God’s Word to a 21st century culture, is not only exciting but transformative.”
The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church voted in July 2010 to pass an amendment opening ordination for gays and lesbians. A year later, a majority of the church’s 173 regional bodies also approved a measure changing language in the church constitution about ordination.
The original language required ministers “to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.” It now reads, “Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life… Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”
Apart from the Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, has allowed gays to be ordained. In 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America opened ordination to noncelibate gays and lesbians.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
Prebyterians are a notoriously fractious bunch. In the US, the PCUSA is merely the largest of scores of Presbyterian denominations. It had split at least once before, in 1861, when southern, more conservative, congregations separated from those in the north because they wanted to retain slavery. They patched up their differences, apparently only temporarily, in 1983.
Presbyterian or Presbyterianism, denotes a form of church government, namely elders and deacons as opposed to congregationalism or pastoral rule.
The Presbyterian Church traditionally used the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) as its doctrinal guidelines. Most Presbyterian churches still at least claim to use the WCF as it’s doctrinal standard (interpretive guideline for Scripture).
Most splits within the denomination took place over the larger denomination (PCUSA) deviating from the WCF’s interpretive standards. These splits have taken place at different times, and lead to a new denomination. There are several Presbyterian denominations that formed as a result of splits over time. The OPC, the PCA and the PRCNA are the most prevalent “reformed” denominations that are Presbyterian.
The interesting thing will be to see what leverage, if any, the PCUSA, has in terms of property ownership of local churches and if they will in fact seize assets of any local churches who opt to leave. This has traditionally been the one leverage point that a large denomination has over the local church. While the local churches tend to buy the property, build the buildings and pay for its maintenance, many times the denominations have claims to the title of the property.
Many times this will cause a church to stay in a denomination that no longer follows it standards.