Circleville Church pays its way out of PCUSA
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, July 3, 2002
Circleville Presbyterian Church of Circleville, N.Y., has paid its way out of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The evangelical congregation, now affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, got its release June 18 when lawyers signed papers and accepted Circleville’s quitclaim payment of $112,500 to the Presbytery of Hudson River.
The presbytery had approved the congregation’s move to realign with its property with the EPC on the condition that it pay the presbytery the equivalent of a tithe on the value of the congregation’s land and buildings. That value was estimated to be $1,125,000.
Saying he was still recovering emotionally from clashes with the presbytery, pastor Leo Jaloszynski described the final legal wrap-up as a “sad, solemn 20-minute exchange.”
He said special gifts – including some from congregations as far away as Michigan – amounted to about $60,000 of the payment. The rest came from the congregation’s building fund, which had been designated to be used toward the completion of a family life center. Construction of the building, which is two-thirds complete, has been halted until the congregation gets back on its feet financially.
The Circleville congregation voted 72-2 in December 2000 to leave the denomination because of disagreements with the presbytery and its congregations that allow same-sex unions and promote defiance of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Sixteen Hudson River congregations have publicly announced that they will not abide by the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order. The presbytery had a committee contact those 16 congregations, but there has been no disciplinary or remedial action to require the congregations to end their dissent.
In 2000, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the highest court in the denomination, ruled in a Vermont case that a session’s dissent from the ordination standard “exceeds the constitutional bounds of freedom of conscience and therefore requires a response on the part of the governing body exercising oversight.”
Leaders of the Circleville congregation said affiliation with the PCUSA had begun to stop growth and reduce contributions, and that separation was a matter of survival.
Circleville was one of the first congregations in New York to join the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA). Jaloszynski said he and the elders had hoped the Confessing Church Movement would provide an evangelical buffer to counter some of the problems created by the presbytery and the denomination.
“We continue to pray for the leadership of the Confessing Churches,” he said. But he said other congregations might follow Circleville’s lead if the denomination does not uphold its constitutional standards.
He said he was not encouraged about the future of the Presbyterian Church (USA) after he read accounts about the actions of the 214th General Assembly, including its unwillingness to enforce the constitution.
Circleville is a congregation with a deep commitment to evangelical missions and social ministries. The congregation has 100 members, but more than 200 attend worship services. Contributions average in excess of $2,500 per member annually – more than triple the denomination’s per-capita giving.
The Presbytery of Hudson River is one of the most liberal presbyteries in the nation. Nearly 80 percent of the commissioners voting at a recent meeting of the presbytery opposed the PCUSA’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard.
The presbytery moved into the PCUSA’s national limelight in 1999 when it authorized ministers to conduct services to bless same-gender couples.