700-member Illinois congregation
leaves PCUSA for EPC
By Edward Terry, The Layman, May 14, 2010
First Presbyterian Church in Aurora, Ill., was dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (USA) Tuesday by Blackhawk Presbytery in a 58-48 vote. A negotiated settlement will allow the 700-member, 152-year-old congregation to leave with its property.
First Presbyetrian Church in Aurora, Ill., has left the PCUSA and aligned with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The congregation, which now is affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), will pay the presbytery $140,000, according to a settlement approved on May 12 in Rockford, Ill.
Part of the dismissal agreement calls for Wayside Cross Ministries Building Fund in Aurora, Ill., to receive $85,000 of the settlement. The remaining $55,000 will be used by the presbytery for reimbursement of the dismissal expenses and for the Mission Strategies and Resources Board.
Pastors Jeffrey Moore and Stephen Rhodes also were dismissed as part of the agreement, which was brokered by a presbytery administrative commission and a negotiating team from the Aurora congregation.
“We are thrilled to have this process behind us so that we can concentrate all our resources on engaging our city with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Moore, senior pastor of the congregation. “We are pleased that we were able to forge an amicable agreement with the presbytery and that our relationship with them came to a cordial conclusion. We’re truly looking forward to our new relationship with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and our future as we continue to serve the Aurora area community.”
Other terms of the agreement allow Aurora to keep the “First Presbyterian” name so long as it is affiliated with a Presbyterian denomination, and the property reverts back to the presbytery if the congregation seeks dismissal from the EPC within 10 years of its dismissal date.
On its Web site, Blackhawk Presbytery offered a summary of the dismissal process, and gratitude to those who helped negotiate it.
“Blackhawk Presbytery is grateful to the administrative commission for its graceful work on this complex, emotion-charged task,” the Web site states.
The Aurora congregation is the second to ask the presbytery to dismiss it to the EPC. The first, Kishwaukee Presbyterian Church, gained its dismissal in 2007. In April 2009, the Aurora congregation voted 317-17 to leave the denomination.
The Aurora session had previously expressed its concern over the direction of the PCUSA, specifically the disagreement over the infallibility of God’s Word.
Blackhawk Presbytery is the home presbytery of Mark Tammen, associate stated clerk and a constitutional lawyer for the denomination. He was among the group that produced the “Louisville Papers,” documents that outlined draconian measures that presbyteries should employ to gain the property of departing congregations or negotiate sizable financial settlements.