Panel to investigate Circleville church’s request to leave the denomination
The Layman Online, January 31, 2002
Over the objections of the pastor and congregation, the Presbytery of Hudson River has voted to establish an Administrative Commission to respond to a request by Circleville Presbyterian Church to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Faced with the possibility that its survival requires separation from the denomination, the congregation had voted 72-2 on Dec. 30 to affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Three members of the Circleville congregation abstained from voting.
The issue, which went before the presbytery Jan. 29, was presented by Stated Clerk Harriet Sandmeier. Her presentation was followed by “lengthy debate (including several amendment votes),” according to the presbytery’s Web site. The results of a written ballot were 123 votes yes, 21 no and two abstentions.
The Administrative Commission is charged with making a summary report on the issue at the next presbytery meeting March 19.
Circleville was one of the first congregations in New York to join the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Pastor Leo Jaloszynski said he and the elders had hoped the Confessing Church Movement would provide an evangelical buffer to counter some of the problems created by the presbytery and the denomination.
Circleville is a congregation with a deep commitment to evangelical missions and social ministries. The congregation has 100 members, but more than 200 attend worship services. Contributions average in excess of $2,500 per member annually – more than triple the denomination’s per-capita giving.
The Presbytery of Hudson River is one of the most liberal presbyteries in the nation. Nearly 80 percent of the commissioners voting at a recent meeting of the presbytery opposed the PCUSA’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard. Some pastors and sessions have said they are openly defying the standard.
The presbytery moved into the PCUSA’s national limelight in 1999 when it authorized ministers to conduct services to bless same-gender couples.
Since then, several ministers in the presbytery have promoted the services to bless same-gender couples. That prompted Circleville to pay for a full-page advertisement in Circleville’s local newspaper to set itself apart theologically from those congregations.
Some members have left the Circleville church and others have reduced their contributions. Because of declining gifts, Circleville has cut its worship services from two on Sunday mornings to one (to save on heating costs) and stopped construction of its 7,500-square-foot family life center that is two-thirds complete.
“We’re losing good people,” Jaloszynski said.
He said a member of the presbytery’s council hinted that the congregation might seek to leave the denomination and affiliate with the more evangelical EPC. “As soon as they hinted that, we immediately took it as the parting of the sea,” he said.
Jaloszynski said one of the concerns among members of his session and the congregation is that there is no discipline in the presbytery. “There are 16 churches in open opposition to the Book of Order,” he said. Jaloszynski’s concern is being echoed across the denomination in the wake of a decision by Redwoods Presbytery in California to ordain Kathleen Morrison. Morrison has defied the PCUSA Constitution by declaring herself a lesbian in a “partnership,” which, she told The San Francisco Chronicle, includes sexual activity.
Like Circleville, many Presbyterian congregations are asking why they should remain in a denomination whose leaders will not protect and defend the constitution.
James L. Vande Berg, the executive for the Presbytery of Hudson River, said he could not predict whether the presbytery would allow Circleville church to leave with its property. “I wouldn’t even begin to imagine where the presbytery would go with the request.”
Presbyteries hold local church property in trust for the General Assembly of the denomination. They are, however, authorized to allow a congregation to leave the denomination with its property and to affiliate with another Reformed denomination.
Jaloszynski emphasized that the Evangelical Presbyterian Church has not courted Circleville. The EPC has only two congregations in New York. The EPC has 190 congregations.