A southwestern Pennsylvania church was dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) during a March 23 meeting of the Presbytery of Redstone.
Ardara United Presbyterian Church, located east of Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County, ended a nearly two-year process of discernment and discussion with the presbytery’s Committee on Discernment (COD) when it was released from the PCUSA with its property to become a member of EPC’s Presbytery of the Alleghenies.
The church of approximately 80 members, pastored by the Rev. Patrick Ewing, followed the presbytery’s policy on congregations considering making a request to leave the PCUSA to end affiliation with the national denomination.
In accepting dismissal to the EPC, Ardara pledged an annual contribution of $2,400 per year for four years to Pine Springs Camp, a Christian summer camp affiliated with the Presbytery of Redstone and the PCUSA. Ardara has had a long-standing relationship with Pine Springs, sending more than a dozen of its youth to the camp for a number of years.
In addition, the congregation of Ardara agreed to provide copies of church records to the presbytery, complete transfers of title to real property that were necessary, make arrangements for use of the name of the congregation, surrender any symbols of the PCUSA and handle any other arrangements necessary to complete the dismissal process.
Ardara UPC was started in 1895 as Duffsville United Presbyterian Church. It became part of the PCUSA through the 1958 merger of the United Presbyterian Church of North America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, along with the subsequent 1983 merger with the Presbyterian Church in the United States to form the PCUSA.
The discernment process featured multiple face-to-face meetings between the COD and the session of Ardara as well as its congregation.
According to information provided to The Layman, meetings between the presbytery representatives and the church session and congregation were cordial. While differences of opinion and varying points of view were outlined by both sides, the end result was a recommendation from the COD to the presbytery in support of Ardara’s request for dismissal.
The process started in May 2011 when the Ardara session notified Redstone Stated Clerk Gary Close of its intent to begin the dismissal process.
Following several congregational meetings that also included the presbytery’s Listening Team as well as discussions between the team and session, members of the congregation, noting that they were “disaffected by the actions of the PCUSA” and a belief that it would be “in the best interests of the Kingdom of God if we be dismissed to another Reformed denomination with whom we are in greater sympathy,” voted 40-0 in January 2012 to sever its relationship with the PCUSA and join the EPC.
In February 2013 the COD determined the discernment period to be completed, that a formal letter requesting dismissal from PCUSA to EPC with all property be drafted and that members of the congregation be sent letters explaining their options if they choose to stay in PCUSA if the presbytery acted to grant dismissal of the church with all its property.
A month later, after reviewing all issues regarding the church property and determining there would be no advantage for the presbytery to retain it for future ministry in that location, and having reviewed the financial status of the congregation and value of its property, the committee recommended that the Presbytery of Redstone honor the request of Ardara United Presbyterian Church to be dismissed with all property for affiliation with the EPC.