Presbytery lets Ohio congregation go to EPC with its property
By Patrick Jean, August 9, 2007
Months of discussion with a regional governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a second congregational vote have resulted in an Ohio church being dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church with its property.
Middle Sandy Presbyterian Church in Homeworth was dismissed to the EPC on July 12. The church reached a mutual agreement with Muskingum Valley Presbytery on June 27.
The Middle Sandy congregation was not required to make any payments to the presbytery in exchange for being declared the owner of its property, said Scott Mason, an elder of the church. But the church will honor its mission commitments to the presbytery for the rest of this year and will take up a “love offering” for the presbytery, he said.
Mason and the Rev. Martin Radcliff, chairman of the presbytery’s administrative commission that worked with the church, agreed that the primary focus was kept on Jesus Christ.
“Representatives of the congregation and the presbytery worked together to develop an agreement which will move forward the ministry of Jesus Christ,” stated a news release issued jointly by the church and the presbytery. “The groups mutually agreed that they were being led by the Holy Spirit to focus on furthering the mission of Jesus Christ rather than on claims of being right or wrong.”
‘Didn’t make it adversarial’
The agreement and dismissal end a process that began five months earlier, when the Middle Sandy congregation first voted to request dismissal from the PCUSA. While Mason said his church felt it was apart from the PCUSA on issues such as the divinity of Christ and the Trinity, the last straw was the 217th General Assembly’s approval of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity report to keep the current ordination standards in the denomination’s constitution, but allow those who choose not to obey them to declare them to be non-essential.
Sixty-two members of the 132-member congregation voted Feb. 25. Of those, 60 voted to request dismissal and two voted to stay, Mason said.
On April 21, Muskingum Valley Presbytery appointed an eight-member administrative commission to respond to the Middle Sandy congregation’s request. Mason said the commission met twice with the church’s session – first for prayer and study, and later to discuss the next phase of the dismissal process.
“We didn’t make it adversarial from the beginning and kept it positive,” Mason said. Commission members felt the same way and acted in a “very loving and Christian” manner, he said. “We felt like they were honestly there to hear what we had to say.”
Radcliff said the church’s session “had some misinformation, but also valid concerns.” Mason said his church’s issues were more with PCUSA headquarters in Louisville, Ky., than with the presbytery office in New Philadelphia, Ohio.
For their part, commission members expressed to the church’s session their disappointment that the presbytery was not asked to be part of the discernment process leading up to the first dismissal vote, Radcliff said.
“It wasn’t a total shock, but we were hoping they would have conversation with us before it got to that point,” said Radcliff, who also is pastor of Bloomfield United Presbyterian Church in New Concord, Ohio.
The Middle Sandy church’s session decided against involving the presbytery in the discernment process, Mason said. Session members felt the presbytery might respond well, but were concerned, particularly in light of neighboring Eastminster Presbytery’s court fight with Hudson Presbyterian Church over ownership of that church’s property, he said.
Let’s do that again
Discussions between the church’s session and the presbytery’s administrative commission resulted in a second congregational vote on seeking dismissal. Mason and Radcliff said the presbytery had two concerns about the first vote Feb. 25:
- Presbytery representatives were not in attendance.
- Fewer than 50 percent of the church’s membership voted.
Both sides agreed to a second congregational vote June 3. Radcliff said he spoke to the congregation on the presbytery’s behalf before the vote, but “it was too late to change minds.”
Ninety-seven members of the congregation voted this time; of those, 95 voted to request dismissal to the EPC and two voted against seeking dismissal, Radcliff said.
Discussions to reach a covenant for dismissal began in earnest after that, Radcliff said. Mason said he was pleased that Radcliff told the church’s session that the presbytery had no moral claim to the church property – “an interesting but good choice of words,” he said.
“This is a church that cared for its own property and provided for its own property,” Radcliff said. Also, the church’s location in a small village wasn’t suitable for a new church development, he said.
‘His blessing really showed’
The June 27 agreement was modeled after the accord that John Knox Presbytery reached in May 2006 with Third Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa, Radcliff said. He presented the covenant to presbytery commissioners at their stated meeting last month.
Both he and Mason praised the agreement and the manner in which it was reached.
“Muskingum Valley Presbytery handled this like friends departing,” Mason said. Some churches that were considering leaving the PCUSA might now stay in light of how this agreement was handled, he said.
“Our primary focus is the mission and the fulfillment of the witness of Jesus Christ,” Radcliff said.
Mason agreed. “His blessing really showed on both sides of this agreement,” he said.
Middle Sandy Church will hold a celebratory service later this month with representatives from the EPC and its Midwest Presbytery, Mason said. The church also is in the process of adding about 10 members – some of whom joined while the dismissal process played itself out, and others who waited for a resolution, he said.
Those in and around Homeworth who want to stay in the PCUSA can attend First United Presbyterian Church in Alliance or other PCUSA churches in neighboring villages, Radcliff said.
Mason hopes the dismissal agreement serves as a model for other presbyteries to follow. “I’m so thankful for the way the administrative commission handled things and the way the presbytery handled things,” he said.
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org.