Iowa congregation votes 53-26 to leave denomination
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 14, 2006
The congregation of Windsor Presbyterian Church in Des Moines, Iowa, voted 53-26 Sunday to approve a resolution by its session to separate from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and become an independent congregation.
The vote came after an hour of debate in which the proponents and opponents of the resolution were each given 30 minutes to make their case. The debate was sometimes passionate, but not acrimonious, according to Dick Woods, a member of the congregation.
“I think the hope is widely shared that we can remain one fellowship,” Woods told The Layman Online.
Much of what happens next will depend on the Presbytery of Des Moines, which has convened an administrative commission to review the Windsor situation. Some members of the administrative commission, along with the presbytery executive, attended the congregational meeting Sunday, and the presbytery has called a special meeting on August 19 to review the Windsor decision.
The Windsor session met on June 25 – three days after the 2006 General Assembly adjourned – and approved the resolution calling for leaving the PCUSA. The precipitating cause was the GA commissioners’ approval of an authoritative interpretation that allows presbyteries and sessions to decide that the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” clause does not prohibit ordaining practicing homosexuals and adulterers.
On June 26, the session notified the presbytery of its action and sent a letter to members of the congregation that was signed by Terry Amann, the pastor, and elder Hal DeGood, acting clerk. “After a lengthy and careful discussion, we have concluded that our only option is to leave the PCUSA and become a non-denominational community church in Windsor Heights,” they said.
Amann and DeGood acknowledged that the presbytery “has authority over the local church, so we will be allowing them to do their work, decently and in order. It is our desire to leave the denomination quietly, with forgiveness in our hearts, and with our church property.”
Windsor Presbyterian had 524 members in 1995, but a church split thinned the ranks to a low of 170 by 2003 – two years before Amann became the pastor. It has been growing slowly since under Amann’s evangelical leadership.
The congregation’s leaders are in the minority in the presbytery, which voted in 1997 against the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” requirement and in 1998 and 2001 in favor of repealing the Book of Order requirement. It was one of nearly two dozen presbyteries that overtured the 2006 General Assembly to call a fourth national referendum on repealing the requirement.