Greetings,

   The recent church departures in the PC(USA) have hit the
national press with a review article from the Washington Post.  I
didn’t see anything new in the articles, other than the fact that it
was in a newspaper from a city that did not currently (to my knowledge
and their reporting) have a church looking at leaving.  And the
article did not make the distinction about the Los Angeles cases that
those are divided congregations not congregations united in departing
the PC(USA).

   One other thing different about the article was the large
number of quotes from Jerry Van Marter from the PC(USA) news
service.  Previous articles have relied mostly on PC(USA) press
releases.  However, Jerry does say that “… he could not recall
one instance in which the denomination lost a legal dispute with a
congregation over church property.”  I guess they don’t consider
the Ridgebury Presbyterian Church case from Orange County, New York, settled yet.

The full article is “Presbyterians fight for custody of the church.”

Last night the congregation of Kirk of the Hills Church in Tulsa, OK, met and voted overwhelmingly to affirm the Session’s decisions to:

1. Disaffiliate from the PC(USA)
2. Affiliate with the EPC
3. Affirm the ordinations of Pastors Tom Gray and Wayne Hardy

If you want to read about it there is no end of information about it out there.  This is the largest PC(USA) congregaton so far to leave the denomination and it is getting wide-spread coverage.  I would refer you to:

The church’s press release about the meeting
Pastor Tom Gray’s blog and his discussion of the meeting
An article in the Tulsa World about it
And a press release issued by the PC(USA) before the meeting

There is some more information as well on the Kirk of the Hills Church web site. 
At least at the moment, the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery still lists the church on their web site since the Presbytery has yet to take formal action.

I will leave it at that and let the news accounts speak for themselves.  I would note the variation between the PC(USA) press release that mentions a “handfull” of churches interested in leaving the denomination and some of the other documents that talk about up to 200.

Greetings,
   The situation at Kirk of the Hills developed over the weekend.  Briefly, it appears that an intended Sunday Morning “takeover’ of the church by presbytery and synod yesterday was diffused by church lawyers when the clerk of session was notified of it.  The presbytery discusses the situation this evening.

I’ve just provided the briefest of summaries since Pastor Tom Gray’s blog provides a much more detailed and first-hand account of what has happened.

In a decision by a New York Ninth Judicial District Supreme Court Justice yesterday
(August 25)  the Ridgebury Presbyterian Church of Wawayanda, NY,
in the Presbytery of Hudson River, may keep its property as it
separates from the PC(USA).  The church is happy, the presbytery
is not, the presbytery is deciding whether to appeal.

The judge based his decision on the fact that the church has held deed
to its property since 1792, before the 1983 trust clause and even
before it joined a presbytery in 1817.  One news article said the
judge relied heavily on a 1984 decision by a state Court of Appeals
decision that said a Presbyterian church in
Schenectady did not have an implied trust with its denomination. 
In fact, the judge got into theological discussion concerning the level
of “obedience” to the hierarchy of a church in a full hierarchical
system, like the Episcapalians, versus a church in a presbyterian
system.  To this the presbytery lawyer said the judge overstepped
his bounds.

So far two news articles have reported on this, one from The Times Herald-Record and one from The Journal News.  The first is more matter-of-fact, the second is a bit more sensational but has the theological info in it.

The Hudson River Presbytery has announced the news on their home page and has a link to the court decision.

The 6th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana convened yesterday in Accra.  The theme of the Assembly is “Go Therefore and Make Disciples of All Nations.”

The opening session included an address by Professor
Mike Ocquaye, Minister of Communications who is also an ordained
Christian minister (denomination not specified).  According to a
Home Page Ghana news article he “condemned the acts of homosexualism and
lesbianism that were being introduced into the Church and were
conflicting with sound doctrines of the Holy Bible.” He also said “…since Christian doctrine had never changed, the
Church must not compromise but rather should be firm to uphold the true
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Another speaker encouraged the church, in the interest of “going into
the whole world” of encouraging “sports evangelism,” especially using
football (soccer for those who know a football as a pointy ball game)
because of the enhanced national pride and interest occasioned by the
success of the Ghanaian team at this summer’s World Cup.

It was also announced that two new campuses of the Presbyterian University College would be opening in the next two years.

The GA continues through Wednesday

The reports of the 70th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church,
held in Grand Island, New York, from Aug. 3-8 are now posted on the denominations web site.  I have previously commented
on their docket but they are now getting MP3’s of the sermons and
seminars online as well as the resolutions that were adopted.  It
does not appear that the actual minutes will be posted.

In looking over the eleven resolutions passed it is striking that none
of them actually deal with the operations of the denomination. 
Four are internal to the denomination:  one thanking the host
church and three are memorials to members who have gone to be with the
Lord.  The remaining seven deal with current theological debates,
some with political implications.  There are three that call upon
our
national leaders.  One is “Women in Combat,” which calls on the
government
to not place women in combat situations.  Another is “Praying in
Christ’s Name in the Military Chaplaincy,” which addresses the current
controversy of military chaplains being ordered to offer more “generic”
prayers.  Finally there is “An Argument Regarding the Duty of
Government to Safeguard the Moral and Spiritual Fabric of Society”
which I think pretty much speaks for itself.

The resolutions also address some of the recent theological
controversies.  These include the Gospel of Judas and their
declaration that it does not belong in the cannon.  In another
resolution they warned against a theological movement called the
“Federal Vision” that I am not familiar with.  They warn that this
theological perspective distorts the doctrine of justification by faith
and that it joins works and faith in the justification process. 
In addition there is a resolution expressing caution over the renewed
ecumenical work of the World Council of Churches.

But finally, the General Synod took time to comment on the 217th GA of
the PC(USA) passing of the recommendations of the PUP report. In
a resolution entitled “The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the
Ordination of Those Who Violate the Seventh Commandment” the General
Synod says:

The PCUSA has thus declared the seventh commandment as “nonessential.”

and

The General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church, meeting in Grand Island, New York,
August 3-8, 2006, calls those within the PCUSA to follow the commands of Scripture
(2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1) to separate from the apostate Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and to affiliate
with a God-honoring Presbyterian denomination that is in no way connected with the rampant
apostasy of our day.

There is a summary of all eleven resolutions.  The full text of
resolution 70:4 dealing with the PC(USA) can be found on this web page.

No sooner (pun intended) do I post the last commentary when I continue web surfing on my lunch hour and find out that not only may the advice in the legal  memos been acted upon, but that another church has  decided to leave the PC(USA) with this as a factor.

The legal memos were reportedly distributed in a closed door meeting last January.  In April, the  Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery placed affidavits on all congregational property in the presbytery.  Reports of these affidavits are from The Layman web site (April 12, 2006).  A copy of an affidavit is also available from The Layman.

I find it interesting that the report of the Trustees of Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery that is in the June 10, 2006, presbytery report packet (page 7 in the pdf) mentions a couple of things.  1)  There was definitely a property issue with the Spring Hill Presbyterian Church.  2)  The Trustees claim that The Layman Online published misinformation (I am trying to find that article) about the case. 3) There is no mention of affidavits specifically in this case, or any general application of them.  4)  The Trustees asked for the sale of now vacant property where a church that has burned down once stood with the proceeds of the sale to “be put in the Trustee’s account to cover the costs associated with other property matters.”  (Conspiracy theorists can now ask “WHAT other property matters are they preparing for?”)  The minutes of the June 10 meeting are not yet posted so any revisions to the report or the results of the vote are not on-line.

Now, fast forward to the present and Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, the reverends Tom Gray and Wayne Hardy, co-pastors.  In his blog Tom Gray writes both about the property legal memos and implicitly how they were behind the presbytery’s affidavits.  The Layman Online reports that the presbytery response is that it was necessary in a limited number of cases but in fairness they placed the affidavit on all the churches’ property.  (Note above the June 10 trustees report, or any report at the presbytery meeting, does not mention the affidavits.)

At a session meeting last Tuesday, August 15, the elders and trustees of Kirk of the Hills voted to disaffiliate from the PC(USA) and pastors Gray and Hardy have renounced jurisdiction.  The press release declares

Yesterday the elders and the trustees of Kirk of the Hills voted to
disaffiliate from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denomination in
response to decisions made by the PCUSA at the national level which
depart from the authority of the Bible and the denomination’s
historical beliefs.

A congregational meeting to affirm the decision of the elders and trustees has been called for August 30.  The church intends to now affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Tom Gray reflects further on these developments in his blog including todays entry.

We will see how this develops.