New Mexico church seeks ECC membership after PCUSA break
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, March 22, 2012
A New Mexico church is walking the path less traveled in its quest to separate from the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Citing a growing disenchantment with the denomination’s view on the authority of Scripture and governance, Sonoma Springs Presbyterian Church of Las Cruces, N.M. voted in June of 2011 to disaffiliate from the PCUSA and Sierra Blanca Presbytery.
“We were motivated by the denomination’s rejection of the authority of Scripture, by the change in ordination standards and by the New Form of Government’s shift away from a connectional model of government to a hierarchical form of government,” Sonoma Springs Pastor Timothy Smith said.
The 200-member congregation is pursuing membership in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) – a more uncommon landing site for disaffected churches — most are joining the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) after leaving the PCUSA.
According to a Layman chart tracking church dismissals, only two of the 139 churches recorded since 2002 have dismissed to the ECC.
“The Evangelical Covenant Church holds to six essentials and allows individual churches space in how they practice what are considered non essentials,” Smith said, adding that he sees the ECC as “technically not in the Reformed tradition, but the Pietist tradition.”
The ECC currently encompasses more than 700 churches and has ministries on five continents.
Smith, who also renounced his ministerial jurisdiction in June, said the church decided to disaffiliate unilaterally from Sierra Blanca due to the “fact that we did not want to operate under the new form of government, which would severely limit what was a legitimate congregational meeting and also because Sierra Blanca Presbytery did not have a dismissal policy.”
Following Sonoma Springs’ disaffiliation vote in June, Sierra Blanca appointed an administrative commission in July. Smith said church representatives met with the commission one time officially and kept open informal communication. However, the church rejected any attempts to get mired in a dismissal process because, Smith says, “we had already left.”
Sonoma Springs moved ahead with plans to join the ECC, knowing that the presbytery couldn’t use a tactic that has often forced disaffiliating churches to negotiate – the disposition of property. Previously, Sierra Blanca had given the church a warranty deed without exceptions on their property.
“In New Mexico that means they would be responsible for defending our clear title to the property,” Smith said. “They did not buy title insurance when they granted the deed so they would have to pay for our legal defense of the property.”
Smith said that when Sierra Blanca hinted at legal action, the church pointed out that it would seek legal action to force the presbytery to fund Sonoma Springs’ own legal defense – a process Smith said the presbytery would not have been able to afford.
“I know because, up until my renunciation, I was the chair of [Sierra Blanca’s] finance committee,” he said.
Smith said the presbytery offered to renounce any future claims of property ownership and trust interest if Sonoma Springs agreed to pay its remaining per-capita and mission funds for 2011. Both sides agreed to terms in December. The church also agreed that the property would revert to Sierra Blanca if within five years the church ceased to exist.
“The full dealings of that commission have not yet been reported to the presbytery, and I do not sit with that commission, so I am not at liberty to speak for them,” said the Rev. Sallie Watson, regional executive presbyter for Sierra Blanca and Santa Fe Presbytery
As for the future, Sonoma Springs has made a formal application to join the ECC after studying a variety of denominational options.
“[The search] led us to decide that we were more evangelical in our outlook than Reformed,” Smith said adding that it would have been easy for him to join the EPC since he grew up in one of its churches in Saint Louis.
“We are more comfortable with the emphasis on Scripture in the ECC,” he said.
Church officials will meet with the Mid-South Conference of the ECC at the denomination’s annual meeting in Dallas on April 20. The church hopes to be formally received by June, Smith said.
In reflecting on the church’s time with the PCUSA, Smith said Sonoma Springs experienced a “long history of frustration with the direction of the [denomination].”
“We were not willing to accept the loss of session authority and the shift of power to the presbytery,” Smith said.
The departure of Sonoma Springs could spell trouble for Sierra Blanca. The beleaguered presbytery is exploring the possibility of a merger with Santa Fe Presbytery.
Currently, the presbyteries share a regional presbyter and stated clerk.
Smith said three other churches in Sierra Blanca have voted to disaffiliate. Watson confirmed the votes, stating the churches are all First Presbyterians churches in Artesia, Hagerman and Dexter.
According to an online newsletter by FPC Dexter, the church anticipates completing the dismissal process this month. “[Dexter awaits] a set of papers from the presbytery meant for us to sign that allow them to release us without contesting property ownership based upon our intentions to affiliate with another Reformed denomination or Christian body.”
“It is my impression that the exodus of these four churches forced Sierra Blanca Presbytery to begin the process of merging with Santa Fe Presbytery,” Smith said.
Watson said the departure of the churches was “‘a’ factor, but it has not at all been ‘the’ factor or the ‘only’ factor.” She called the proposed change the creation of a new presbytery rather than a merger. At its next meeting in April, Sierra Blanca will decide whether or not to send an overture to the General Assembly requesting the re-formation.