75 percent of Quincy, Ill., congregation votes to seek dismissal from PCUSA
By Patrick Jean, Staff Writer, June 27, 2007
The congregation of First Presbyterian Church in Quincy, Ill., voted by a large margin June 24 to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the smaller, more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church, said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Rodney J. Bakker.
Two hundred and fifteen of the church’s estimated 400 members voted. Of those, 162 – or 75 percent – voted to seek dismissal to the EPC and 53 – or 25 percent – voted to remain in the PCUSA.
The dismissal request now goes to Great Rivers Presbytery, whose administrative commission will meet with the church members who are interested in staying in the PCUSA, Bakker said. The administrative commission then will meet with the church session – a meeting that he said probably will happen in about three weeks.
“The ball is in the presbytery’s court,” Bakker said.
First Presbyterian Church is a member of the New Wineskins Association of Churches, a conservative organization that successfully petitioned the EPC for the establishment of a transitional, non-geographic presbytery to receive groups of churches into membership in that denomination. The 27th EPC General Assembly overwhelmingly voted June 22 for a plan to create non-geographic, transitional presbyteries to receive congregations seeking to join the denomination.
But Great Rivers Presbytery will not dismiss First Presbyterian Church to a “provisional presbytery” such as the New Wineskins-EPC presbytery, Bakker said, so membership directly in the EPC is being sought instead.
Bakker, who has been the pastor of 167-year-old First Presbyterian Church for about 13 years, cited two actions by the 217th General Assembly last year that steered his church on its path toward a dismissal request vote:
- 1. Approval of the report by the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity that keeps the current ordination standards in the PCUSA’s Constitution, but allows those who choose not to obey them to declare them to be non-essential.
- 2. Receiving a paper on the Trinity that proposes both the Biblical tradition for the names of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – as well as a number of alternatives never linked in Scripture as Trinitarian language.
Several local meetings followed the general assembly, and the church session co-sponsored an overture asking Great Rivers Presbytery to affirm the constitutional ordination standards. The overture failed on a 74-72 vote.
“I tell you, if there was a straw that broke the camel’s back, that was it,” Bakker said. However, he added, “In truth, it’s just 25 years of accumulated frustration that led the session to bring this resolution before our congregation.”
The session made a unanimous recommendation for the resolution at its meeting April 16. The June 24 vote asked the congregation to resolve to ask Great Rivers Presbytery to dismiss the church to the EPC.
The Quincy church is the first to be addressed by the presbytery’s administrative commission. Presbytery commissioners, acting on a recommendation from presbytery trustees, authorized the seven-member panel Feb. 27.
The administrative commission, “if necessary, will ‘visit particular churches, governing bodies or other organizations of the church reported to be affected with disorder, and to inquire into and settle the difficulties therein,’ to the extent permitted by the Book of Order (G-9.0503a(4)),” according to the trustees’ report.
“The rationale for this action is the potential need to react promptly between assembly meetings if a particular church proposes actions which, if taken, would result in separation from the PCUSA and/or which are at variance with the Constitution of the PCUSA,” the report states. “The current volatility of the issues facing the presbytery and the larger church call for advance planning and preparedness for a variety of contingencies.”
The Rev. Dr. Jim Bell, moderator of the administrative commission, said his panel can do one of two things with First Presbyterian Church’s request:
- 1. Call a special presbytery meeting.
- 2. Make a report and recommendations at the presbytery’s next stated meeting Sept. 11.
The administrative commission already has had several meetings with the church, Bakker said. The panel has not been authorized to attempt to replace the session or pastor, he added.
Bakker said he received a letter three weeks ago from the presbytery stating that if his church is dismissed with its property, the presbytery wants $550,000 in return. The session has not yet met to respond to the letter, he said.
Bakker and Bell agree that they don’t want the matter to end up in civil court.
“It does appear that it is their desire to work with our congregation in order to allow us to make this transition,” Bakker said. He would prefer to come to an agreement or reach a settlement through Christian mediation.
“I think there was agreement that we wanted to attempt to do everything in such a way as to be Biblical and not disgrace our Lord,” said Bell, who is co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Normal, Ill. “Both sides agreed that we would attempt to do everything possible to avoid any litigation.”
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@www.layman.org.