Session: ‘God will be glorified’
Fremont looks to next step after voting to leave PCUSA
Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, October 20, 2011
A California church now faces the next step in what may be a long dismissal process following the congregation’s decision to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA).
By a vote of 427-164 during a congregational meeting on Oct. 16, Fremont Presbyterian Church of Sacramento, Calif., voted to pursue dismissal from the PCUSA in order to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
“A congregational vote to join another Presbyterian denomination would be less about leaving the PCUSA than recognizing that the PCUSA has already left us,” members of the church’s session said in a released statement.
“The PCUSA has grown increasingly dysfunctional during the past few decades,” they added. “Our affiliation is proving more of a hindrance than a support for our ministries.
The session unanimously recommended leaving the PCUSA in July, shortly after the denomination adopted Amendment 10A, which deleted ordination standards addressing explicit chastity and fidelity requirements from the PCUSA constitution. The deleted standard required that ordained officers be faithful in marriage between a man and a woman, or chaste in singleness.
However, the session pointed out that the passage of the amendment, which will permit presbyteries to ordain gay candidates involved in same-sex relationships, was only one of many reasons for seeking dismissal. Church leaders say the decision has been a long time in the making.
“For more than a decade, elders and pastors at Fremont have been concerned with the various ways unorthodoxy has been increasingly tolerated in the denomination,” the elders said. “This year’s votes to change our ordination standards … and to alter our form of government … show that the PCUSA has finally moved beyond merely tolerating unorthodoxy. The PCUSA now officially embraces it.”
Before the vote on Oct. 16, the session provided the congregation with several position papers, frequently asked questions (FAQs), Scripture passages and other data, as well has holding several forums about the dismissal process and the EPC.
Why dismissal?
The session listed five main reasons for recommending dismissal:
· “The PCUSA no longer clearly communicates why and how Jesus Christ matters to a world that needs to know;
· “Many in PCUSA leadership have rejected the authority of the Bible or have adopted unorthodox interpretations of it;
· “Our witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is diminished by our continued membership in the PCUSA;
· “The PCUSA has become incapable of providing meaningful support to our congregation as we seek to be faithful to God’s call;
· “Fremont wishes to remain in fellowship with the worldwide Christian Church, from which the PCUSA is now diverging.”
Session: Not a ‘narrowing’ of faith
Although the vote tilted heavily on the side of dismissal, the process nevertheless proved traumatic for some members.
“I think God can and will call whoever he wants to call, regardless of sex or orientation,” member Cindy Harris told the Sacramento Bee. She said she will continue to pursue plans to be a PCUSA minister and refuses to join the EPC.
“This is a narrowing of our faith,” member John Simpson told a reporter. “It will be painful, but I will leave.”
In an earlier statement, the session said they believe the PCUSA is in fact narrowing its focus by “straying” from traditional theology.
“Rather than Fremont ‘narrowing’ its theology, the session believes strongly that the PCUSA has lost its focus on the historical core Reformed theology and is making decisions that have caused it to stray from that foundational theology,” officials said. “The session chooses to stand with the overwhelming majority of the global Christian world and affirm its unchanged commitment to orthodox Reformed Christian belief.”
Some congregation members had earlier expressed concerns about the role of women in ministry under the EPC. The session pointed out that the EPC “allows local churches to decide about receiving women as teaching elders (pastors) and this is a congregational right in perpetuity on a geographic presbytery basis.”
“It is therefore highly unlikely that a presbytery which had been receiving women as teaching elders would ever reverse that practice and policy,” the elders stated.
In making the decision to dismiss to the EPC, the session interviewed congregations that left the PCUSA for the EPC, as well as male and female ordained ministers of the denomination.
Down the road
Looking ahead, the church now faces a series of dismissal procedures with the Presbytery of Sacramento in order to decide issues relating to property and membership.
“The next step is the appointment of a negotiating team by the presbytery’s committee on ministry, which meets next week,” said Jay Wilkins, transitional presbyter of Sacramento.
“Abandoning Fremont’s property is not the intention of Fremont’s leadership,” Fremont Senior Pastor Don Baird said in a previous statement.
Baird pointed out that all of the five churches that have left Sacramento in the past four years left with their property intact.
“We are confident that the presbytery will be gracious in this negotiation,” Fremont leaders said.
The presbytery’s policy states that it is “committed to providing a faithful and equitable process through which a congregation may graciously be dismissed to another reformed denomination.”
According to the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office, Fremont’s property is valued at $8.5 million.
As the dismissal process gathers steam, church leaders say they are optimistic about the outcome and that they hold no animosity towards other PCUSA churches of the presbytery.
“It is our sincerest prayer that the Holy Spirit would continue to work in the minds and hearts of Presbyterians in the membership and leadership of PCUSA with conviction and restore it to its heritage based on the centrality of Christ and the authority of Scripture,” the session stated in a release.
“We’ve been co-laborers with them. We have tended the vineyard side-by-side with them for years. They are loved and we know that they love the church.”
Whatever the outcome, church officials also say that nothing will keep Fremont from continuing its Biblical ministry.
“Our pastors will preach, our session will lead, our programs will minister to others and God will be glorified,” officials said.
Baird said the church will continue its mission through the process: “The glory and success of Fremont is that it holds firmly to the authority of Scripture, believes that Jesus Christ is the unique Savior of the world and values its ability to fully participate in its ministry and mission.”
According to the PCUSA Research Services, Fremont has a membership of 1,234. Although the church has not contributed per capita funds for several years, its stated apportionment for 2010 was $ 13,339. Total contributions to the church were $2.5 million in 2010.