Presbytery modifies its plan
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 23, 2006
The leaders of Montreat Presbyterian Church in Montreat, N.C., decided Sunday to postpone for three months a congregational vote on whether to seek dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The decision to delay the vote – originally scheduled at a congregational meeting on Sunday, Oct. 29 – came after a three-hour meeting that included presentations by Montreat leaders and representatives of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina.
Adam Boyd, an elder at Montreat, said the session, which unanimously recommended that the congregation vote to be dismissed, decided to follow the dismissal process that the presbytery approved Saturday.
The presbytery voted to make major alterations to the proposed dismissal plan that was included in commissioners’ packets without any mention of who developed it. There were indications, however, that the original proposal was influenced by denominational staff.
The proposed presbytery plan for dismissal would have required a 75 percent vote by the presbytery to dismiss a congregation. But the commissioners scaled that back to a simple majority.
Another major change was to require at least five people to file a complaint against the process before it would be deemed acceptable for a mandatory review by the presbytery’s judicial commission. As originally proposed, the presbytery plan said the judicial commission would be convened upon receipt of a complaint from a single person.
Boyd said the presbytery’s plan still has some elements that trouble Montreat leaders, including a clause that the church’s property would be revert to the presbytery if a dismissed congregation leaves the denomination with which it reaffiliated within 10 years.
Also, he said, the presbytery’s plan still allows the presbytery, even if it dismisses a congregation, to vote on whether to allow the congregation to retain its property. The plan still requires separate votes by the presbytery on 1) whether to dismiss a congregation and 2) whether to allow it to leave with its property.
One of the arguments against the 75-percent vote requirement was that the 2006 General Assembly approved by a simple majority (298-221) the authoritative interpretation that allows ordaining bodies to declare that the “fidelity/chastity” standard in the PCUSA is not an essential. It was that vote that prompted many congregations that consider whether they would disaffiliate from the PCUSA.