Nine congregations have voted their way out – and paid dearly
By John H. Adams, The Layman Volume 38, Number 1, April 12, 2005
Considering their orthodox faith is at odds with the direction of the Presbyterian Church (USA), nine congregations have voted since 2001 to leave the denomination.
For seven of the nine, the option of choice is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. One has aligned with the Presbyterian Church in America. One wants to be independent, but still Reformed.
Property has been a major issue.
Presbyteries, which are under pressure from the PCUSA staff leaders to remit full per-capita apportionments to support the denomination, are resisting allowing congregations to leave with their property unless they pay an exit fee.
They are using the denomination’s property law, which states that all congregations hold their property in trust for the PCUSA, to leverage payments from departing congregations – even though church law does not require such payments. The congregations are resisting the use of their tithes and offerings of their people – which were intended for other purposes – to pay for permission from presbyteries to leave the PCUSA with their property.
Five presbyteries voted to allow the congregations to leave, but required them to pay settlements totaling $1,449,743.
In another case, the presbytery seized control of the property, worth an estimated $2.5 million. The new congregation has since begun a $3.5-million building program, so its loss-debt total is $6 million.
Altogether, the 2,333 members of the nine separating congregations have paid settlements, lost assets and incurred debt totaling nearly $7.5 million.
That’s roughly $3,215 per member of the nine congregations – and the tab is still running. Two congregations currently are asking state civil courts to award them the church property.
Seven of the nine congregations were members of the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church. The other two are similarly orthodox. The Confessing Church Movement has not taken a position in favor of leaving the PCUSA and the movement has continued to grow, despite strong resentment toward it in many presbyteries.
The issues for the congregations in exodus are the liberal trends in the PCUSA, including the denomination’s unwillingness or inability to enforce its ordination standards and its departure from orthodox Biblical authority and interpretation.
New congregationCity/stateCong. voteDateStatusTotal CostPer memberGatewayFindlay, Ohio219-19Dec. 2001EPC$6 million*$8,470CirclevilleCircleville, N.Y.72-2Dec. 2002EPC$112,500$1,125HephzibahBessemer City, N.C.N/A2002PendingCivil case on appealUnsettledRivermontLynchburg, Va.95 pct.July 2003EPC$1.1 million$1,100FirstWarsaw, Ind.325-0April 2004EPC$95,743$96FirstCharleston, Miss.74-1April 2004PCA$75,000$735SeroneArtesia, Calif.N/AJan. 2005N/ACivil trial pendingUnsettledFirstLaredo, Texas33-0Jan. 2005EPC$66,500 proposedUnsettledCommunityEphrata, Wash.75-24Jan. 2005PendingUnsettledUnsettled
Meanwhile, here are some capsules on what has happened:
Findlay, Ohio
In December 2001, the congregation of Norcrest Presbyterian Church in Findlay, Ohio, voted 219-19 to leave the PCUSA to affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The congregation’s leaders say they feared continued affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA) would damage their ongoing evangelism. (Norcrest’s membership had increased 37 percent – from 362 to 497 – from 1992 to 2001.)
Attempts to negotiate a settlement with the Presbytery of Maumee Valley were short-lived. In April 2002, the presbytery took control of church property, which was valued at $2.5 million, changed the locks and put the pastor’s belongings on the sidewalk.
The dissenting congregation hurriedly arranged to meet in a public dog pound building the next Sunday. Now reorganized as Gateway Presbyterian Church and meeting in a public building, the congregation is booming. Membership has grown to more than 700. A $3.5-million building project is under way.
Circleville, N.Y.
Circleville Presbyterian Church in Circleville, N.Y., was in a quandary. It was a fast-growing congregation with 100 members and 200 average attendance at its worship services. The congregation had begun construction of a family life center.
But Circleville is in the Presbytery of Hudson River, one of the most extreme presbyteries in the denomination. Sixteen of the presbytery’s churches had banded together to promote their union services for homosexual couples – even using local newspaper advertisements.
Members of Circleville were upset and expressed their unwillingness to finance completion of the family life center as part of the property of the PCUSA. They proposed leaving the denomination. The congregation voted 72-2 in December 2002 to leave the PCUSA and asked the presbytery to let them keep their property.
The presbytery agreed on the condition that the new Circleville Evangelical Presbyterian Church pay a $112,500 exit fee.
Bessemer City, N.C.
In 2002, 47 of the 50 members of Hephzibah Presbyterian Church, located in a rural area near Gastonia, N.C., voted to leave the PCUSA.
That ignited a bitter fight between the dissenting congregation – now called Hephzibah Evangelical Presbyterian Church – and the Presbytery of Western North Carolina. A civil court judge awarded the property to minority that voted not to leave the PCUSA. That ruling has been appealed to the N.C. Court of Appeals, but a date has not been set for a hearing.
The trial court judge ordered a temporary sharing of the property pending the outcome of the appeal. Hephzibah Evangelical Presbyterian Church gets to use the building for Sunday school and worship from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Sundays. For a while, the presbytery – using one of its staff members as the preacher – tried to build on the tiny remnant by offering worship services at 11 a.m. for the Hephzibah Presbyterian Church. But, with meager attendance, those services have ceased.
The presbytery has posted signs inside the building warning members of the new Hephzibah Evangelical Presbyterian Church that they are subject to arrest if they try to enter the building before 8:30 a.m. on Sundays or loiter past 10:30 a.m. Members of the congregation complain that they need to enter the building early to turn on the heat for Sunday school classes and that the presbytery has failed to clean the building or repair a leaky roof.
Lynchburg, Va.
Of the nine congregations, Rivermont Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Va., paid the highest cash price – $1.1 million – to gain the approval of the Presbytery of the Peaks to leave the PCUSA with its property. With more than 1,000 members, Rivermont is also the largest congregation to leave since 2002.
A short message on its Web site explains why Rivermont joined the exodus. “In 2001, we initiated a process for dismissal from the PCUSA. After years of seeking to work for the renewal and reformation of the PCUSA, we came to the conviction that it was time to seek dismissal to another denomination which would unambiguously affirm the authority of Scripture and the historic essentials of Reformed evangelical faith. In 2003, we were dismissed by the PCUSA to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, adding the word ‘Evangelical’ to our name.”
Ninety-five percent of the members attending a congregational meeting voted in July 2003 to leave the PCUSA.
Warsaw, Ind.
First Presbyterian Church in Warsaw, Ind., a 165-year-old congregation, voted 325-0 in April 2004 to leave the PCUSA and affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The 600-member congregation later changed its name to Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The presbytery asked the congregation to pay an $850,000 exit fee. After months of negotiations, the Wabash Valley Presbytery voted unanimously to allow the congregation to leave with its property upon payment of $95,743.
Before its departure from the PCUSA, the session had approved a Confessing Church resolution, and the congregation began to consider more seriously its Biblical and confessional tradition. But, one lay leader told The Layman, the congregation grew “increasingly disenchanted as other churches and presbyteries defied church law and denominational leaders refused to enforce the constitution.”
Charleston, Miss.
First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, Miss., voted in April 2004 to leave the PCUSA and affiliate with the Presbyterian Church in America.
The 102-member Charleston congregation had hoped for an amicable settlement. It asked to be dismissed outright to another Reformed denomination, but the presbytery required that it vote to renounce the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In November 2004, the Presbytery of St. Andrews voted 61-4 to allow the Charleston congregation to incorporate as a non-aligned independent church. The presbytery required a property settlement of $75,000.
Some members of the Charleston congregation say there were a lingering resentments from an earlier mass exodus of mainline Presbyterian congregations in Mississippi.
Over a period of two days in 1971, 60 congregations in what was then the Presbyterian Church U.S., the mainline Southern denomination, voted to affiliate with the emerging National Presbyterian Church, later named the Presbyterian Church in America.
The 60 left the PCUS because of their concern over a plan for reuniting the Southern and Northern streams of Presbyterianism in the United States. That plan was eventually approved by both denominations, creating the PCUSA.
Laredo, Texas
First Presbyterian Church in Laredo, Tex., has been negotiating with the Mission Presbytery for permission to be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church with its property.
The 42-member congregation voted 33-0 in January to make the change. The presbytery has proposed a $66,500 settlement, the equivalent of a tithe on property with an estimated value of $665,000.
The presbytery’s proposed settlement said its property terms reflected an acknowledgment “that we are called to work for the peace, unity, and purity of the Church as we seek to be faithful to God’s work in the world, we make this motion in the spirit of love and co-operation.”
The property settlement cost to the congregation would be $1,548 per member, nearly 50 percent higher than the average annual gift of the denomination’s 2.4 million Presbyterians.
Ephrata, Wash.
After a 75-24 vote in January, the congregation of Ephrata Presbyterian Church in Ephrata, Wash., has gone in two directions. The majority has formed the Community Church of Ephrata and seeks to align with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The minority continues to be known as Ephrata Presbyterian Church.
The details of who owns or uses the church property are being worked out by the Presbytery of Central Washington.
Before the separation Ephrata Presbyterian Church was a growing, 202-member congregation in which membership had increased 36 percent in the last 10 years.
One of the organizers of Community Presbyterian Church told The Layman that there is little ill will between the two groups that were one.
“The First Presbyterian Church in Ephrata … has divided over the actions of the PCUSA,” she said. “The majority of the former members have formed the Community Church of Ephrata and are in the process of affiliating with the EPC. The remainder of the congregation chooses to continue to work from within the PCUSA to try to effect change.”
Artesia, Calif.
Serone Presbyterian Church in Artesia, Calif., is in the throes of working out its separation from the PCUSA by appealing to the state court and posting armed guards at its property to prevent officials of the Presbytery of Hamni from confiscating the assets.
Lawyers for Serone are banking on a recent decision by a California appellate court that says church property trust clauses, such as the PCUSA’s, may be revoked by local congregations. That ruling came in a United Methodist property dispute. The California Supreme Court essentially upheld the appellate court by deciding not to review the case.
The congregation has renamed itself Serone Communit