By Jack Haberer
PUEBLO WEST, COLORADO – A much smaller Pueblo Presbytery has reversed itself, falling one vote short of the majority needed to ratify an amendment to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s constitution – an amendment calling for repentance in the lives of those being ordained to church office.
In a stunning tie vote of 22-to-22, the presbytery, meeting at the Ecumenical Church of Pueblo West, failed to lend its support to an amendment that a year ago it had proposed – an amendment which was originally recommended as an overture to the General Assembly by the Presbytery of San Jose and which Pueblo Presbytery then endorsed by a significant majority.
The change in voting pattern reflects a huge change in this southeastern Colorado presbytery. In the past year approximately 70 percent of the presbytery’s members left the PC(USA) to join other denominations. Most of those “faithfully departed” are members of the large First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, with more than 4,000 members, which voted in March of 2012 to join the new denomination ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. A half dozen other churches from Pueblo Presbytery also voted last year to leave the PC(USA).
For more details, check The Presbyterian Outlook.