Churches are paying big bucks to get out of the Presbyterian Church (USA). PCUSA presbyteries are taking the 2012 decision of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission – which requires a presbytery to “fulfill its fiduciary duty under the trust clause” when it considers dismissing a congregation — to heart when assessing exit fees on…
By Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post Gazette. When he meets with other church planters, the Rev. Rodger Woodworth finds he’s old enough to be the father of many of them. In one case, he is. The Rev. B.J. Woodworth is a second-generation church planter, founding Open Door in Highland Park. It’s one of several new churches…
By Rachel Williams, Juicy Ecumenism. Back in March of this year, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to change the definition of marriage from “one man and one woman” to “two people, traditionally a man and a woman.” This allows clergy to now perform same-sex marriages and also states those clergy who are personally opposed to…
A presentation given last October by current and former members of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Research Services concluded that a large majority of the congregations that have left the PCUSA since 2006 were conservative churches that “were tired of battling the more moderate majority over various issues, pre-eminent among them the question of ordination of…
While one Presbyterian denomination celebrates last Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriages legal in all states, another one grieves, a third states that it does not regard the decision “to be in keeping with God’s intentions for marriage,” and a fourth affirms that marriage is a gift from God between one man and one…
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Rev. Dr. Mike Moses, the founding and lead pastor of Lake Forest Church in Huntersville, N.C., was unanimously elected moderator of the 35th General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church yesterday. “The greatest honor in my life is to open the Word of life,” he said, and being elected moderator is…
ORLANDO, Fla. — Before reading the Scripture passage and delivering his sermon at the opening worship service of the 35th General Assembly of the Evangelical Church, the Rev. Dr. David D. Swanson thanked the EPC. Swanson’s church — First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, Fla., the host church of this week’s assembly meeting — had been…
By Joseph Duffus, Small-p Presbyterianism blog. Perhaps the saddest event taking place in the presbyterian world is the process of seeking “gracious dismissal” from PC(USA). As we know, this denomination is splintering and withering due to overall membership declines — fewer people becoming members of PC(USA) churches. But this is common to all of the mainline…
While the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in a decades-long membership decline, two other Presbyterian denominations are growing, according to their respective statistics, and a third, while having a slight decrease in its membership totals, grew by five churches during the year. ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians In 2014, the newest member of the Presbyterian…
Carmen Fowler LaBerge, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee will be preaching at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s 35th General Assembly. During her Friday, June 26th sermon, LaBerge will raise the question, “If we have the mind of Christ and the Spirit of Christ, do we also have the perspective of God and the kind of faith…