Dismissal votes shear a third of Mississippi Presbytery’s members
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, May 23, 2012
With five motions and five unanimous votes, a Presbyterian Church (USA) presbytery lost five congregations from its rolls — losing almost a third of its membership. But, according to its leaders, those that stay and those that leave will keep a common bond.
The Presbytery of Mississippi voted without dissent to approve the request of the congregations – representing about 1,400 members—to leave the PCUSA and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), leaving 37 churches with a total of about 2,900 members.
The disaffected churches say the PCUSA no longer supports the authority of Scripture when making denominational decisions on issues like same-sex marriage, ordination standards and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
The presbytery agreed to dismiss the First Presbyterian churches of Vicksburg, Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, as well as Port Gibson and Yokena Presbyterian Church of Vicksburg.
Although churches have been leaving the PCUSA in greater numbers over the past decade, the exodus began to mushroom after the 2011 passage of Amendment 10A and new Form of Government.
The amendment deleted the explicit “fidelity/chastity” requirement from the constitutional ordination standard, and now allows the PCUSA to ordain noncelibate gay people as deacons, elders and pastors.
The new Form of Government (nFOG) has raised concerns that the PCUSA may become more hierarchical and less connectional, as well as becoming more universalistic in theology.
“Weightier theological tenets like the authority and inspiration of Scripture, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone have long been the points of great pressure at the seam of the PCUSA,” Ocean Springs Senior Pastor Scott Castleman wrote to his congregation earlier this year.
Unlike some PCUSA presbyteries, which have expelled pastors and filed lawsuits against churches seeking to leave, Mississippi has opted to make the process friendlier, officials say.
“Everyone was trying to maintain a positive outlook. Parting is not easy, but the determination was expressed by many people that we want to stay in relationship with one another,” Mississippi Stated Clerk Michael Herrin said. Herrin is also the pastor of FPC-Port Gibson and stated supply of Yokena.
The presbytery made no claim on the churches’ property nor did it seek payment of per-capita funds or other offerings. By contrast, the Presbytery of Tropical Florida agreed to the dismissal of nine churches and almost a third of its membership last week, but, under its dismissal policy, required payment of at least $500,000 over the next few years.
“We’ve already decided, we’re not going to fight over that,” Herrin said.
Indeed, Mississippi had little to fight over with its departing churches in terms of theology, either. The presbytery voted down Amendment 10A and nFOG overwhelmingly.
“It really was just a peaceful process,” Castleman said. His church, Ocean Springs, even hosted the presbytery meeting.
“One of the consistent prayers we prayed [at FPC-Ocean Springs] was that the Lord would keep us of one mind … we’re blessed that there was such a unity of peace,” he said, adding that he felt “heartfelt appreciation” toward the presbytery.
In 2006, Mississippi became one of the first PCUSA presbyteries to renounce the denomination’s property-trust clause. Its policy states the presbytery will not fight a member congregation that “would ask the courts of the State of Mississippi to clear its property of any claims made by higher governing bodies against that property.”
Consequently, three churches – including First churches of Pascagoula and Vicksburg — filed suit to test the policy in 2007. The presbytery voted to instruct its attorney to resolve the suits amicably.
Since then, the presbytery has taken a hands-off policy toward property and church funds, opting instead to extend a helping hand to departing churches.
“If a congregation, after thought and prayer and presbytery input, decides that the Lord is calling them to do ministry in another denominational context, we are not going to try to be punitive – we’re not going to stand in the way of what congregations feel led to do,” Herrin said.
He added that Mississippi applied recommended guidelines rather than blanket gracious-dismissal policies used by other presbyteries.
“It’s not in order to have a policy or procedure because every dismissal request must be handled on a case-by-case basis; but it is in order to have recommended guidelines,” Herrin said.
“They stuck to [the recommended guidelines] to the ‘nth’ degree, which can’t be said for all presbyteries,” said Pascagoula Senior Pastor Matt Mitchell. “I think a lot of them have gracious dismissal policies and the minute you put it in place, they say ‘Tough break; we’re not going to use it.’”
“It would cost everybody a lot less grief if more presbyteries would follow the example we have tried to set,” Herrin said.
After saying goodbye to five congregations, 37 remain within Mississippi Presbytery. However, Herrin said that number may soon drop by one after the presbytery voted to approve a request by First Presbyterian Church of Brookhaven to dissolve, agreeing to form a commission to handle the dissolution of the four-member church.
Despite losing 32-percent of its membership, Herrin said he is optimistic about the presbytery’s future.
“It’s very possible for congregations of small size to continue to relate to one another and to have effective program and to nurture and hold each other accountable without the expense of full time presbytery staff and expensive office space,” he said.
To curtail expenses, Herrin and Administrative Presbyter John Dudley both serve on a part-time basis. At its May 17 meeting, the presbytery voted to change the status of its office manager from full-time to part-time by next year.
Presbytery officials hope and expect that the hands of fellowship will remain between its member churches and the provisional EPC churches.
The presbytery sponsors Cursillo, a weekend retreat ministry, and Herrin said departing churches will continue to be welcome to attend and participate.
As an example of the fellowship that still exists, Herrin said that, after the meeting ended, “people who were leaving and people who were staying sat around the table and visited and hugged and cried and laughed — it was just a wholesome gathering of God’s people.”
“The fact that five of the congregations were no longer in the presbytery didn’t seem to hamper the feelings of love and good will.”
The Rev. Tim Brown, senior pastor of FPC-Vicksburg, agreed: “We’re sad that we’re losing some of the ministry relationships that we had but we’ll always be brothers and sisters in Christ with Mississippi Presbytery.”