Georgia church finalizes PCUSA dismissal
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, October 27, 2011
A Georgia church has wrapped up its dismissal process to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
Members of Parkway Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Ga. met with an administrative commission from the Cherokee Presbytery on Oct. 24 to finalize its dismissal process.
On June 26, Parkway’s congregation agreed to leave the PCUSA by a vote of 273-14.
The church cites the PCUSA’s May adoption of Amendment 10A as one factor in its decision. The measure deletes the chastity/fidelity ordination clause from the Book of Order, and will allow presbyteries to ordain gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender candidates as ministers, elders and deacons. In November, Cherokee Presbytery voted down 10A by a vote of 49-62.
“Our decision to leave the PCUSA was not easy or taken lightly,” Parkway Clerk of Session Eloise Newton said in an August letter to the presbytery. “However, with the recent decisions by the PCUSA and their continued direction, the path chosen by our congregation is a clear one. As a confessing church, and staying true to the original confessions under which we were formed, there are several principles that are non-negotiable and we feel are in conflict with the direction that PCUSA is taking.”
During its July meeting, the presbytery agreed to establish a coordinating team to investigate Parkway’s request and report back to the presbytery in September.
The team presented the following recommendation on Sept. 27:
- “Approve Parkway’s request to be dismissed with title, assets and liabilities to the Presbytery of the Southeast of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
- “In light of the Parkway’s willingness to provide a fiscal gift, that Cherokee Presbytery make no efforts to collect the $202,525.80 that would be owed had Cherokee Presbytery’s Gracious Dismissal policy been in place.
- “Designate any financial gift received from Parkway for the Tri-Presbytery New Church Development Commission.”
Had Cherokee attempted to stop the dismissal and seek Parkway’s property – which is valued at $2.4 million – the presbytery would have also been saddled with the church’s $2.37 million debt.
Currently, the church’s debt service is $180,000 — roughly 24 percent of its income.
“If Parkway is not dismissed, it is very likely that many members will leave, and the remaining members will not be able to make the loan payments” the coordinating commission told presbytery officials. “In that event, Parkway would lose the property,” it added, pointing out that the debt service alone would represent one-third of presbytery’s annual budget.
According to presbytery documents, the Tri-presbytery New Church Development Commission gave Parkway $1.5 million for start-up costs in 1996. Under a proposed dismissal policy, Parkway would have owed $202,525 to Cherokee.
In lieu of that amount, Parkway has agreed to make an as-yet undetermined financial gift to the development fund in the future.
“We recognize that there will be some members of the presbytery that will be looking for a specific figure, and the best we are able to do at this time is make you aware of our desire to continue our friendships, grow together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and commit to sharing that love in a fiscal capacity in the future,” Newton told the presbytery.
The church recorded 475 members in 2010 and collected $739,375 in offerings.
For January-August, Cherokee Presbytery recorded income of $500,630 and expenses of $524,726.
In related news, Cherokee’s Committee on Ministry (COM) has approved a policy that could affect pastors and churches seeking future dismissals.
Approved on Sept. 13, the policy states that, after an investigation, if a pastor in the presbytery is “found to have publicly announced their intention to leave with all or part of the congregation, the COM will determine that by the action of leading the way to dissolution, the minister has renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church USA.”
The COM also stated that it would not dismiss members of the presbytery as ministers in good standing if such a minister is judged to be schismatic. The COM defined a “schismatic” minister as “one who foments a congregation’s departure from the PC USA by misinformation or words of undue influence toward leaving this denomination and who plans to leave the PCUSA with the congregation and continue ministry with that community.”