N.Y. congregation must pay $112,500 to leave PCUSA
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, May 20, 2002
The Presbytery of Hudson River has ordered Circleville Presbyterian Church in Circleville, N.Y., to pay a $112,500 quitclaim before it can leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
That figure – equal to 10 percent of the appraised value of the Circleville Property – was negotiated during a meeting of the presbytery May 18 in Scarborough, N.Y. At one point, the presbytery was seeking a separation payment of $250,000.
The congregation does not have the cash on hand to pay the settlement. Pastor Leo Jaloszynski said he has sent e-mails to other evangelical congregations asking for their help.
The Circleville congregation voted 72-2 in December 2000 to leave the denomination because of disagreements with the presbytery and its congregations that allow same-sex unions and promote defiance of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Sixteen Hudson River congregations have publicly announced that they will not abide by the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard in the Book of Order. The presbytery had a committee contact those 16 congregations, but there has been no disciplinary or remedial action to require the congregations to end their dissent.
In 2000, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly, the highest court in the denomination, ruled in a Vermont case that a session’s dissent from the ordination standard “exceeds the constitutional bounds of freedom of conscience and therefore requires a response on the part of the governing body exercising oversight.”
Leaders of the Circleville congregation said affiliation with the PCUSA had begun to stop growth and reduce contributions and that separation was a matter of survival. The congregation halted construction of a family life center after it was two-thirds complete.
Circleville was one of the first congregations in New York to join the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA). 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.
The presbytery moved into the PCUSA’s national limelight in 1999 when it authorized ministers to conduct services to bless same-gender couples.