South Carolina’s largest PCUSA church leaves denomination for ECO
The Layman, August 29, 2012
The largest Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in South Carolina will soon become one of the largest churches nationally for the newest Reformed denomination.
Foothills Presbytery agreed to a dismissal settlement with First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, S.C. on Aug. 18 after months of negotiations.
On April 23, the session of the 3,500-member church unanimously voted to seek dismissal from the PCUSA and also voted to transfer the church’s membership to ECO—A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. The church’s congregation agreed in a May vote.
“ A secularized approach [by the PCUSA] to Scripture is creating tension around the exclusivity of the person and work of Christ, the importance of the Scriptures, the sanctity of human life, sexual ethics, ordination standards the definition of marriage and numerous other matters,” the session stated in an earlier document.
Greenville’s departure will not be without a cost, however. In its final report, Foothills’ Committee on Ministry made it clear that the denomination’s much-disputed “property trust” clause could have been enforced in the case of Greenville.
“The Task Force and the COM did not negotiate this settlement because of the belief that the ‘express trust’ provision is unenforceable in the appropriate case,” the COM report stated.
“In this case, we do not have a closely divided session or congregation. The session is unanimous, and the congregation is almost unanimous. There is no group within the church which would seek to be, or have the ability to be, the continuing PCUSA congregation of FPG,” the COM report added (page 26).
“Thus, if Foothills Presbytery sought to enforce the express trust provision, it would have to dissolve FPG and seize the property to sell it. It would not serve the cause of Christ to go down that path in this case.”
Instead, Greenville will pay $570,874 to Foothills over four years — $203,748 to specific ministry areas and $367,126 in unrestricted funds. In 2010, the church collected $4.79 million in contributions.
More importantly to churches that may wish to depart from Foothills for ECO in the future, the COM report stated that: “The Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians is a Reformed body to which we can dismiss congregations according to the constitution of the PCUSA and the provisions of our Gracious Dismissal Policy.”
This statement seems to indicate that the presbytery will not attempt to claim that the new denomination is not a Reformed body should future congregations seek to be dismissed to it.
Greenville’s journey began last May when the session began to study the possibility of dismissal.
At the time, the denomination was in the process of eventually approving Amendment 10A, which deleted the explicit “fidelity/chastity” requirement from the constitutional ordination standard, and now allows the PCUSA to ordain of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people as deacons, elders and pastors. For many departing churches, passage of the amendment signaled a lack of reliance on Scriptural authority by the PCUSA.
After considering the possibility of either joining the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) or ECO, the session ultimately decided to recommend ECO.
“We are attracted by the breadth of [ECO’s] confessional standards, a commitment to Biblical fidelity reflected in their theological essentials, the right of a congregation to own its own property, a missional mindset at a congregational level, a proactive approach to the mentoring of newer and younger leaders, their emphasis on smaller and less bureaucratic presbyteries, and their primary aim of intentionally making disciples of Jesus Christ,” Greenville Senior Pastor Richard Gibbons said in a congregational announcement in May 2012.
In February, Gibbons informed Foothills of the church’s desire to enter into the presbytery’s newly minted dismissal policy.
“We are saddened that they will request to leave our fellowship, but we know that the session believes that this decision is in the best interest of the mission of First Presbyterian Church,” Foothills Executive Presbyter George Wilkes said in May.
The session met with the Committee on Ministry several times over the spring of 2012 and presbytery officials attended several congregational town-hall meetings.
On May 20, 96-percent of voting members affirmed the session’s recommendation to join ECO.
“We wish God’s richest blessings on our colleagues in the PCUSA and remain immensely grateful to our presbytery for their work with us as we wrestled with the issues involved,” Gibbons said following the Aug. 18 presbytery vote. “A great deal of thanks goes to our elders and congregation for the support and leadership they so graciously provided,” he added.