With survival at stake, congregation is trying to leave Presbyterian Church
The Layman Online, December 14, 2001
One of the first congregations in New York to join the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA) has asked the Presbytery of Hudson River for permission to leave the denomination, join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and keep its property.
Circleville Presbyterian Church in Circleville, N.Y., will have a congregational vote on the transition on Dec. 30. The matter will go before the council of the Presbytery of Hudson River on Jan. 8, 2002, with consideration by the full presbytery scheduled for Jan. 28.
The Rev. Leo Jaloszynski, pastor of Circleville, said the actions of the presbytery and the denomination have jeopardized the future of the congregation. He said he had hoped the congregation could ride out the difficulties through the Confessing Church Movement but that, now, it is a matter of urgency and survival.
The issues are a microcosm of the debates that have caused unrest in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Circleville is a congregation with a deep commitment to evangelical missions and social ministries. The congregation has 100 members but more than 200 attend worship services. Contributions average more than $2,500 per member annually – more than triple the denomination’s per-capita giving.
The Presbytery of Hudson River is one of the most liberal presbyteries in the nation. Nearly 80 percent of the commissioners voting at a recent meeting of the presbytery opposed the PCUSA’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard. Some pastors and sessions have said they are openly defying the standard.
The presbytery moved into the PCUSA’s national limelight in 1999 when it authorized ministers to conduct services to bless same-gender couples. The denomination’s highest court – the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly – concurred with the presbytery on the conditions that the services not resemble marriages and not be considered a sanction for homosexual activity.
Since then, several ministers in the presbytery have promoted the services to bless same-gender couples. That prompted Circleville to pay for a full-page advertisement in the local newspaper to set itself apart theologically from those congregations.
Some members have left the Circleville church and others have reduced their contributions. Because of declining gifts, Circleville has cut its worship services from two on Sunday mornings to one (to save on heating costs) and stopped construction of a 7,500-square-foot building that is two-thirds complete.
“We’re losing good people,” Jaloszynski said.
He said a member of the presbytery’s council hinted that the congregation might seek to leave the denomination and affiliate with the more evangelical EPC. “As soon as they hinted that, we immediately took it as the parting of the sea,” he said.
Jaloszynski said one of the concerns among members of his session and the congregation is that there is no discipline in the presbytery. “There are 16 churches in open opposition to the Book of Order,” he said.
Jaloszynski’s concern is being echoed across the denomination in the wake of a decision by Redwoods Presbytery in California to ordain Kathleen Morrison. Morrison has defied the PCUSA Constitution by declaring herself a lesbian in a “partnership,” which, she told The San Francisco Chronicle, includes sexual activity.
Like Circleville, many Presbyterian congregations are asking why they should remain in a denomination whose leaders will not protect and defend the constitution.
James L. Vande Berg, the executive for the Presbytery of Hudson River, said he could not predict whether the presbytery would allow Circleville church to leave with its property. “I wouldn’t even begin to imagine where the presbytery would go with the request.”
Presbyteries hold local church property in trust for the General Assembly of the denomination. They are, however, authorized to allow a congregation to leave the denomination with its property and to affiliate with another Reformed denomination.
Jaloszynski emphasized that the Evangelical Presbyterian Church has not courted Circleville. The EPC has only two congregations in New York. The EPC has a total of 190 congregations.