28th General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church EPC flatly denies recruiting PCUSA churches, vows to 'stick to the high ground' in argument By Charles F. Burge Executive Director The Layman Saturday, June 21, 2008 Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) officials continue to deny charges by the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), that the EPC has been actively encouraging churches to leave the PCUSA and join the EPC. During the Fraternal Relations Committee meeting at the 28th General Assembly of the EPC, Stated Clerk and Executive Pastor Jeff Jeremiah said, "I've done nothing to initiate contact, to recruit, to solicit or anything like that. I have not placed a single call to anyone outside of our denomination (for recruitment), particularly in the PCUSA." Jeremiah admitted that he and other EPC officials recognized that "there would be some interaction with the PCUSA" when he took the position, but expressed surprise at the amount of scrutiny he had endured. "Personally, from the outset I've been under the microscope," he said. "We knew that this could be an exciting era for the life of the church, but we could mess it up real quick. That is why there is a commitment that we made as we are receiving churches, in which in everything we do we make the best attempt to honor our Lord." Jeremiah promised, "We're going to stick to the high ground as best we can and be polite, generous and gracious as we can be." He said that every member of the EPC national leadership realizes that all their contact with friends in the PCUSA, regardless of intent or content, had been curtailed because of the scrutiny. The 218th PCUSA General Assembly, which begins Saturday in San Jose, Calif., is receiving an overture that accuses the EPC of "actively pursuing a strategy to persuade Presbyterian Church (USA) churches to disaffiliate with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church." This mirrors a threat in a November 2007 letter by Kirkpatrick that an overture could be forthcoming requesting an examination that could result in the PCUSA GA "taking action that would adversely affect the relationship between our two communions and the possibility of being able to transfer congregations between our presbyteries in the future." No specific evidence was provided in either the overture or letter as to the alleged contact by the EPC. The PCUSA overture by Florida's Peace River Presbytery (07-03, assigned to the Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee) requests that the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) -- a fellowship to which both the EPC and the PCUSA belong -- "investigate the actions and conduct of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church … and to take appropriate action." In addition to serving as PCUSA stated clerk, Kirkpatrick is president of WARC. Jeremiah said the primary reason for the EPC's membership in WARC was to ease the ability for churches requesting to move from the PCUSA to the EPC. "But if that bridge is burned from the other side," he said, "we may have to re-evaluate our relationship with WARC." The Fraternal Relations Committee was to request Friday that the EPC GA send a letter to WARC "calling attention to the manner in which the EPC is being unjustly (or erroneously) accused of wrongdoing by the PCUSA." The EPC GA is scheduled to meet through noon Saturday at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Md.

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