Kirkpatrick Letter to EPC

Earlier this week I posted an excerpt from an email that PCUSA Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick sent to EPC Executive Pastor/Stated Clerk Jeff Jeremiah. The excerpt had appeared in an interim report from the administrative commission for Grace Chapel Presbyterian Church in Mississippi. As it happens, the whole thing has now been posted at the Web site of the Santa Fe Presbytery:

Dear Jeff:

 

May this Advent Season be a time of hope and renewal for you!

 

As you know, the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its related authoritative interpretations make provision for PC(USA) presbyteries to dismiss congregations to another Reformed body of similar doctrine and organization. A number of congregations have been transferred in accord with our Constitution to presbyteries of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in the past year. However, in recent months the Office of the General Assembly has received complaints from our presbyteries concerning the reception of congregations and ministers by the EPC prior to Constitutional release by PC(USA) presbyteries. We have also received information that Evangelical Presbyterian Church representatives have been actively recruiting, seeking, and initiating contact with PC(USA) congregations to encourage their leaving this denomination.

 

Both practices are contrary to the principles and expectations of our respective Books of Order.

 

I am writing to request that your office advise your presbyteries–including the transitional presbytery–they should abide by the processes in our Books of Order.

 

If this pattern continues unabated, I expect one or more of our presbyteries will overture the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA) next summer, requesting that the assembly examine the basis of the PC(USA)’s relationship with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Such examination might well result in the 218th General Assembly taking action that would adversely affect the relationship between our two communions and the possibility of being able to transfer congregations between our presbyteries in the future. You may be aware that just over thirty years ago, the 199th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America considered just such an action.

 

I also reiterate my invitation to you to come to Louisville that we might discuss how to resolve this current situation in the spirit of Christ and of our common commitment to fellowship with one another in the Reformed community.

 

Cordially,

Clifton Kirkpatrick

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

I previously raised several questions about Kirkpatrick’s information, particularly that accusation that EPC has been actively recruiting and initiating contacts with churches, which I believe to be entirely false. Here I’d like to raise another question: given that there is no established procedure for the dismissal of churches in the PCUSA Book of Order (all there is is a statement in G-11.0103i that presbyteries have the responsibility and power “to divide, dismiss, or dissolve churches in consultation with their members”), and that the lack of such an established procedure is both the reason for so much chaos and the opening for so much vindictiveness–given all that, how exactly is the EPC supposed to “abide by the processes in our Books of Order”? We’ve been abiding by ours–if you’d been in on some of the discussion we’ve had in the Presbytery of the East, trying to figure out how to respond to churches that want to be admitted in a way that is strictly in accord with our Book of Order, you’d know what I mean. But given the lack of an established procedure in the PCUSA, and the ad hoc way in which presbyteries are dealing with churches–in some cases fairly, in some cases not–I don’t see how we can be expected to do anything other than what we’re doing.

Or perhaps Kirkpatrick would like for EPC to adopt the “Louisville Papers” as its modus operandi, too?

(Hat tip: Larry Rued.)

News From Covenant (FL)

According to the Web site of Covenant Presbyterian Church, For Myers, the presbytery vote yesterday was not good:

1. The Presbytery declared that Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Fort Myers, Florida, is a “church in schism” under the Book of Order G-8.0601.

Here is the relevant part of the Book of Order mentioned in this item:

The relationship to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of a particular church can be severed only by constitutional action on the part of the presbytery. (G-11.0103i) If there is a schism within the membership of a particular church and the presbytery is unable to effect a reconciliation or a division into separate churches within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the presbytery shall determine if one of the factions is entitled to the property because it is identified by the presbytery as the true church within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This determination does not depend upon which faction received the majority vote within the particular church at the time of the schism.

I rather wondered if nayone from the presbytery has tried to bring about “reconciliation” between the two voting blocs in the church, or whether anyone has polled those who voted against departure to find out how many would go with the majority. I suspect that the presbytery just assumed, because it would be convenient for their ends, that those who voted to stay would stay under any circumstances.

2. Our motion to be dismissed from the PCUSA as a church was denied.

Once the presbytery has made the decision that there is a division in a congregation, that by itself apparently determines that they can’t–or won’t–dismiss a church. Admittedly, the vote at Covenant wasn’t as overwhelming as it has been in some churches (77% voted to ask for dismissal, with a bit over a thousand out of 1300 members voting). But if I read the history of this particular conflict, what I’ve been able to piece together, correctly, the presbytery set up numerical goals for dismissal that needed to be met, they were met, and now the presbytery is saying, “oh, but we didn’t mean ‘with your property.’” What did they mean, they’d let them out of the dungeon?

3. An Administrative Commission was appointed to dismiss the pastors and members of the Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) who wish to join the EPC New Wineskins Presbytery (G-11.0103i). The Administrative Commission will work with our church’s leadership to establish a timeframe.

That last part means, “get out and leave the keys.” Once again raising the question, is there anyone in leadership in the PCUSA who is willing to play the game on the level? Or is it really all about the property?

Question kind of answers itself, doesn’t it?

(Hat tip: Larry Rued.)