Conservative Presbyterians Weigh Split From PCUSA
A group of nearly 2,000 conservative members of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) met in Minneapolis August 24-25 to discuss how to move ahead in light of the denomination’s policy, begun in July, that allows open homosexuals to serve as clergy. The conference, organized under the umbrella of
Presbyterians for Renewal, was called for those members “who are deeply troubled and whose integrity is deeply threatened by the move the denomination has made,” said the Rev.
Paul Detterman, the group’s executive director.
As reported by the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the meeting was convened by the “newly formed
Fellowship of Presbyterians … to help churches opposed to the move find ways to work within or leave the Presbyterian Church USA.” The Rev. Jim Singleton (left), pastor of the nearly 4,000-member First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said of the conference: “With so many critical theological differences and a denomination that continues to decline, we have to ask ourselves, is there something else that God has for us?”
According to the
Associated Press, “Earlier this year, several pastors of large Presbyterian churches signed a letter calling for less church bureaucracy and more evangelization, growing congregations and developing leadership.” Warning that the PCUSA was “deathly ill,” the denominational leaders cited “such things as the loss of more than half its members since its peak in the mid-1960s,” reported AP. “Seventy-eight congregations, some of them large, have moved to other, mostly conservative Presbyterian denominations since 2007.”
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