Mount Pisgah changes name, leaves PCUSA

Another Washington congregation has changed its name and left the Presbyterian Church (USA) to make its home in another denomination.

Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church, located in Roslyn 80 miles east of Seattle in the Cascade Mountains in Kittikas County, was dismissed from the PCUSA during a Feb. 22 meeting of the Presbytery of Central Washington to align with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. The dismissal was finalized and became official March 31 following a period for any objections about the dismissal to be brought before the presbytery.

The 50-member congregation established in 1886 changed its name to Roslyn Presbyterian Church to accommodate a requirement found in the presbytery’s gracious separation policy, turned its records over to the Presbyterian Historical Society and paid three years of per capita totaling $5,084.

“Changing our name was one of the hardest parts of the process, but we are now free and clear,” Roslyn Pastor Jim Berkley said. “It’s been a long time coming, the culmination of a long relationship of unhappiness with the direction the denomination was heading.”

 

Time to leave the PCUSA

Berkley, who has been the pastor at Roslyn for nearly three years, said the church seriously has been considering leaving the denomination for the last decade.

“When I arrived (fall of 2011) the church wanted to move right into the discernment process, but I asked that we wait a year or so to let the newness wear off and let some of the changes settle down,” Berkley explained. “You’ve heard the story time and time again. It was about the way the PCUSA has left Biblical principles and a lot of its orthodoxy while opening its doors to other beliefs about morality. We felt those were the means by which decisions were being made rather than by Scripture.”

Roslyn pointed to the denomination’s inability to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Savior as the prevailing factor in deciding to leave the PCUSA along with an unwillingness to take a Biblical stance on sexual morality.

“The PCUSA is losing the nerve to be able to say and proclaim unequivocally Jesus Christ is the only Savior. That’s a factor,” Berkley said. “Homosexuality is only part of that issue. The denomination is not taking the Bible for what it says but is trying to explain it away rather than live by it.”

Berkley also pointed to Christian mission becoming more political rather than focused on taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sharing it with the world as another reason for seeking a denominational change.

“It was one thing after another, and it became clear that the PCUSA was not the proper denomination for us to be part of,” Berkley said. “We found it an embarrassment and hindrance to be part of a group that has lost the beliefs we have retained, and we felt it necessary to detach ourselves from that denomination and join another more closely aligned with our beliefs.”

 

Working through the process

Roslyn’s session voted in February 2013 to enter the discernment process with the Presbytery of Central Washington, but it was another three months before a Discernment Team was formed and began meeting with church leaders.

Part of that may have been a result of the high number of churches that already were involved in the discernment process and seeking to leave the PCUSA.

Finally, in August 2013, a congregational vote to depart the PCUSA was taken. More than 80 percent of the church membership turned out for the vote, and 95 percent voted in favor of leaving to join ECO.

Berkley said the process the sides worked through was amicable.

“The policy in place takes into account the health and vitality of the congregation. It’s very fair and favorable for churches,” he said. “We had a great team, very conservative, that worked well with us. It was very harmonious. We found the people working with us to be very helpful, and the work was done with a good spirit.”

Once the work of the Discernment Team was completed, an Administrative Commission hammered out details for terms that the session agreed to in January, ultimately resulting in a unanimous presbytery vote to approve the dismissal.

 

Landing in ECO

ECO was chosen as the new denominational home primarily for geographical reasons. So many other churches already had departed the presbytery to align with ECO that it made sense for Roslyn to affiliate with the denomination.

“So many of our fellow churches in the area were going to ECO, and we wanted to retain a fellowship with them,” Berkley said. “Some of our dearest friends already were in ECO so it made sense to keep the group together.”

While geography was important, so, too, was the opportunity to minister in a missional way, an emphasis for ECO.

“We were not leaving just to get out of the PCUSA. We wanted to be missional in our ministry,” Berkley explained, adding that the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and take ownership in the continual formation of ECO also was a draw. “We just needed to be associated with a denomination on the same page as us.”

Berkley explained that the Roslyn church has been more congregationally-oriented than denominationally-oriented. It is not dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterian or the PCUSA.

“We’re still doing the same things and believe the same things,” he said. “The transition is still new for us but not much has changed other than the name and our logo. We’re going to be forming affinity groups within ECO and placing a greater missional emphasis on our ministry as we continue to follow Christ.”

 

A dwindling presbytery

Roslyn is one of at least 15 churches to leave the Presbytery of Central Washington since the summer of 2011. Nine of those have left to join ECO. Along with Roslyn they include Walla Walla First, West Side in Richland, Waitsburg, Grace of Christ (formerly First Presbyterian-Yakima), Covenant (formerly Prosser First Presbyterian), Bethany in Grandview, Ellensburg and Moses Lake.

Five congregations (Terrace Heights, Wenatchee, Omak, Okanogan and Bickleton) have left to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), and one (Westminster-Yakima) is now part of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).

“None of the churches that have left wanted to leave the presbytery. We’ve all had great relationships with the presbytery, so leaving was sad,” Berkley said. “The relationships with the national denomination have been the problem. “

The departures of the 15 churches account for close to 70 percent of the membership of Central Washington Presbytery. Twenty-one churches remain in the presbytery, but three of those (Naches, Orondo and Eastmont) are engaged in the discernment process.

“That’s a lot of churches for a presbytery to lose,” Berkley said.