Church in Montreat votes to leave the PCUSA
The Layman Online, January 22, 2007
MONTREAT, N.C. – By a whopping 311-27 vote with three abstentions, the congregation of Montreat Presbyterian Church decided Sunday to request the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to dismiss it to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
“I’m in shock,” said the Rev. Richard White, pastor of the congregation. “Knowing the faith of this congregation, I expected that it would vote to leave – but this was a huge majority!”
The vote came despite concerted efforts by presbytery and General Assembly leaders to keep the congregation in the denomination, including a personal visit from the Rev. Joan Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Anticipating that several of its congregations are on the brink of departure, the presbytery established a set of exit “guidelines” that included high hurdles for churches that are inclined to leave. Those guidelines include the requirement that at least 50 percent of the congregation be present at the congregational meeting where the vote is taken and that a minimum of 75 percent of the congregation, present and voting, must choose to leave.
The Montreat congregation has 455 members on its roll, 341 of whom turned out for the vote. The announcement of the tally, 92 percent of the congregation, was greeted with stunned silence and then prayer.
Prayer part of process
Prayer has been a crucial part of this process, White said, “including our time with the moderator.” White said that he and the congregation appreciated the fact that Gray took time out of her busy schedule to meet with them on the Wednesday evening before the vote. “She is a gracious lady,” he said.
White reported Gray met first with his session, then the congregation.
“When we went into the room,” he said, “she was on her knees, praying for us, that the Holy Spirit would lead us. … She said she did not come to try to talk us into staying, but to listen to our people.
“Moderator Gray was very personal in her remarks to the congregation,” White said. “She told us of her love for Montreat [the largest of the three national conference centers operated by the PCUSA] and that she had met her husband here.”
Gray gave the congregation an opportunity to share its concerns over what some members called the denomination’s highly publicized departures from the Biblical witness. Some of the questions proved difficult for her.
A member of the session who leads the congregation’s missionary support initiatives expressed his sadness over the denomination’s diminishing commitment to world missions. Noting the precipitous decline in its missionary force, he asked Gray if she saw a relationship between the leadership’s penchant toward theological pluralism and recurring cuts in the missionary force. Gray paused for several seconds, and then said the question deserved a more thoughtful response than she could offer on the spot. “I’ll have to think about it,” she said.
Another member’s question focused on “The Louisville Papers,” advice and counsel memoranda created by lawyers in the Office of the General Assembly that advise presbyteries to seize local church property, freeze bank accounts, and file lawsuits against individual session members in congregations that are considering leaving the denomination. Noting the contrast between these documents and what he termed the moderator’s gracious and loving demeanor, he asked Gray to comment on this counsel from the denomination’s stated clerk.
Gray said she had not read the documents.
What’s next?
The next step in Montreat’s future will be taken by the Presbytery of Western North Carolina. According to its exit policy, the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry will now meet with the Montreat church’s session to review the vote and procedures followed by the congregation. The Committee on Ministry will then make a recommendation to the presbytery regarding the Montreat church’s request to be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The subject of church property in this case should prove interesting. The Montreat congregation worships in a building owned by Montreat College and located on property that originally was part of the Mountain Retreat Association Trust. A separate, three-story educational and church office building was built and paid for by the congregation. It stands on property owned by the congregation through its trustees.
White said concerns about retaining church property were discussed early in the session’s deliberations.
“Our session talked about that before it made its recommendation to the congregation that we leave the PCUSA,” he said, “and it was very clear that our decision must be made on the basis of principle, not property.”
White said the issue is a matter of priorities for his congregation. “Of course, we want to retain our property,” he said, “but our first decision has to be to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.”
The departure of the Montreat congregation is a major loss to the Presbytery of Western North Carolina and the denomination. Although moderate in number, it is twice the size of most congregations in the PCUSA and its passion for missions makes it a flagship congregation, placing it in the upper tier of per-capita congregational giving. Denominational statistics show overall contributions to the congregation in 2005, the most recent year statistics are available, were $729,859 – more than three times the average of $225,473 for all PCUSA congregations.
Because it is located in the heart of a major denominational conference center, many Presbyterian visitors attend its services. And because Montreat is their home, the Rev. Billy and Ruth Graham often worship with the congregation when they are in residence.