Session of PCUSA’s 5th largest church withholds its per capita
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 27, 2006
The session of First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Fla., the fifth largest congregation in the Presbyterian Church (USA), has decided to withhold payment of its per-capita apportionment to support the work of the General Assembly.
“We will not resume that giving until we are able to see a significant change in the spiritual direction of our church,” Dr. David Swanson, senior minister of the congregation, said in the Feb. 22 edition of Columns, the congregation’s newsletter.
The most recent Comparative Statistics of the PCUSA said the Orlando congregation had 4,954 members at the end of 2004. At the current per-capita rate of $5.41 per member to support the General Assembly Council and the Office of the General Assembly, First Presbyterian would be diverting from the denomination’s national headquarters an apportionment of $28,601.14 for 2006.
PCUSA budget-makers have already predicted record-setting membership declines of 65,000 in 2005 and 85,000 in 2006, which would dramatically shrink already dwindling support for the denomination. The General Assembly Council is recommending that the per-capita rate be $5.72 in 2007 (based on 2005 membership) and 2008 (based on 2006 membership.) The financial loss for those membership declines would total $1.6 million over the two years.
Rob Bullock, clerk of session at the Orlando congregation, sent Paige McRight, the executive in the Central Florida Presbytery, a letter about the session’s decision. He enclosed a check for $24,262 designated for the presbytery’s Basic Mission Support. Bullock explained that that money represented “a sizeable portion of the per capita monies that have been assessed by General Assembly and synod.”
Bullock informed McRight that the Orlando session had “been led to the conclusion that the General Assembly is not acting in a manner which demonstrates obedience to God’s Word nor his will. Our denominational leaders have not shown a willingness to enact discipline where discipline has been called for, nor have they acted in ways that truly represent the broader church family. As members of that PCUSA family, we cannot, in good conscience, continue to enable such behavior by providing the financial means for its continuation.”
Swanson explained the decision in an article published in the Feb. 22 edition of the congregation’s newsletter, Columns.
He cites the session’s concerns about a number of problems in the denomination, including its declining membership, and two issues that will be considered by the 217th General Assembly during its meeting in June:
1. The report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.
Swanson says the task force recommends that “each governing body will be responsible to determine which, if any, scrupling done by a candidate for church offices touches on the essentials of our faith. In a spirit of peace, unity and purity, higher governing bodies are requested to trust the examinations of other governing bodies.”
Swanson said PUP’s proposal “amounts to nothing more than a ‘local option’ in which individual presbyteries will be allowed to determine ordination standards instead of the larger whole.” He declared that the recommendation “violates our Presbyterian heritage and will serve to divide, not unify, our church.” Even so, he added, “as it stands now, there is a high probability this report will be adopted.”
2. Overtures seeking repeal of the constitutional “fidelity/chastity” requirement in the Book of Order and the current General Assembly Authoritative Interpretation that undergirds that standard.
“Again this summer, overtures [so far, 23] will be considered which ask that both of those provisions be removed,” Swanson said. “To make matters worse, there are recent documented cases of churches and presbyteries openly defying church law and ordaining practicing homosexual persons anyway. Our national office, led by Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, has refused to take any course of discipline.”
Swanson also identified other issues: cutting missionaries; making them raise their own funding; giving large sums to political causes (“such as a Pro-Choice March in Washington”); and the proposed divestiture of Presbyterian funds in corporations that do business with Israel “as a faulty means of promoting peace in the Middle East, serving to inflame Jews against our church both in this country and abroad.”
Swanson declared that he remains loyal to the denomination and that he has no plans to leave it. “However, it is quite possible in the ensuing months and years that the church may split, and when she does, we will have to be ready to address the issues and lead appropriately. Rest assured that your session is well aware of all these things and is keeping a close watch on the ministry of the PCUSA.”