Stow Presbyterian Church votes to leave the PCUSA
Special to The Layman Online, October 12, 2006
STOW, Ohio – The members of Stow Presbyterian Church in Stow, Ohio, voted Oct. 8 to become the first congregation in the Northeast Ohio area to disassociate from the Presbyterian Church (USA). The congregational vote overwhelmingly upheld the unanimous vote of the church’s session last month to disassociate from the PCUSA, church officials said.
“Lord, we humble ourselves before you at this defining moment,” Pastor David Weyrick prayed after the results of the votes were announced. “We trust in you to guide us on the path we are on and lead us to our next pasture.”
Sunday’s vote followed a series of congregational discussion meetings held in October at which reasons for discord with the denomination were presented. Chief among them were the claims that many in the PCUSA no longer uphold the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the infallibility and authority of the Bible.
“There are those in the denomination who would deny the Lordship of Christ and view him as a merely a moral teacher,” Weyrick said. “There are those who believe it is offensive to claim Christ to be the way, the truth and the life. The denomination’s 2001 General Assembly actually held a formal debate on whether Christ was Lord and the only way to salvation. In good conscience, we cannot agree to un-scriptural interpretations.”
He said the assertion of the “infallibility” of Scripture no longer is officially used in church doctrine. In addition, the actions of the 2006 General Assembly set up “non-essential” requirements for the ordination of church pastors and leaders. As a result, necessary standards of ordination used in the church’s Book of Order, such as affirming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible, now can be bypassed and individuals can be ordained without accepting these standards.
Weyrick also cited a lack of written standards of essential beliefs for the denomination. “The denomination has no set of written essentials of faith for church members and leaders,” he said. “Yet, all church officers must agree to abide by ‘essential tenets’ that don’t exist.”
Other reasons cited for discord included the continued decline of the PCUSA in terms of membership and involvement in world mission work. Recent statistics show that the PCUSA has been in a steady decline for more than two decades. In particular, Stow Presbyterian Church’s former presbytery (Eastminster) has dropped from 65,000 members at its founding in 1973 to less than 11,500 today.
Weyrick said one of the reasons this decline has gone unchecked is an ineffective bureaucracy within the PCUSA.
“Just as an example, in 1996 I oversaw the writing of a 93-page demographic study for Eastminster Presbytery,” he said. “It identified nine critical areas where action was needed for our churches to survive. The resulting commission was ineffective in addressing these areas. For three years, almost nothing happened – and the downward spiral has continued.”
The denomination’s emphasis on world missions also has declined, with a loss of more than 80 percent of its missionaries since 1983. Other Presbyterian churches throughout the world are breaking off their associations with the PCUSA.
“More than 100 years ago, Presbyterian missionaries brought the message of Christ to Brazil, East Africa, Argentina and Egypt,” Weyrick said. “They even died on foreign soil with their message. Yet today, these Presbyterian brethren are not even interested in receiving PCUSA missionaries.”
He cited a recent Bible study published by the PCUSA as one example of why world Presbyterian churches are disengaging. The Bible study stated that the serpent in the Garden of Eden, noted in chapter three of the book of Genesis, was really God and that God was simply engaging Eve in a “scientific investigation.” Long-established interpretation says the serpent was Satan and that he introduced disobedience and sin into the world.
“This is apostasy,” Weyrick said. “This study claims there was no sin in the Garden of Eden. But the fall of Adam and Eve is one of the foundations of our faith and the reason we needed Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our salvation.”
A final reason for discord is a property rights issue with the denomination. Within the PCUSA, all church property is said to be “held in trust” by the denomination. If a congregation, as in Stow Presbyterian Church’s case, should opt to leave the PCUSA, the denomination expects that congregation to give up all rights to its property and assets. The Stow congregation denies that its property is subject to any denominational trust.
At Sunday’s meeting, the congregation also voted to reinstate Weyrick as their pastor, since he renounced his denominational jurisdiction on that day, and to reinstate their lay pastor and all elders and deacons previously ordained in the PCUSA.
A registered letter was sent to the general presbyter of Eastminster Presbytery on Tuesday informing the presbytery of the decision, congregational officials said. The letter also contained the fulfillment of the congregation’s 2006 mission pledge, which was extended in good faith as an acknowledgment of its gracious separation from the denomination.
According to the PCUSA’s statistics, Stow Presbyterian Church has 262 members, compared to the average PCUSA congregation of 212. Christian education enrollment is 213, while the average for all PCUSA congregations is 124, and overall contributions from the congregation totaled $367,007, larger than the 2005 PCUSA average of $225,455.
Another church in the same presbytery and county – Hudson Presbyterian Church – has scheduled a congregational meeting Nov. 5 to act on its session’s proposal to leave the PCUSA and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The Stow church has not chosen a denominational affiliation at this time.