Posted on 10/30/2013 5:34:57 PM PDT by ReformationFan
The largest Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Texas has voted to leave the mainline denomination over theological differences.
Highland Park Presbyterian Church of Dallas, which has approximately 4,000 members, overwhelmingly approved a resolution recently that would involve the congregation seeking dismissal from PC (USA).
Eighty-nine percent of the members present at the Congregational and Corporate Meeting held at the church voted in favor of leaving PC (USA).
Last month, Highland Park Presbyterian leadership unanimously approved a resolution to begin the process of dismissal from PC (USA).
The Session recommended dismissal from the mainline denomination and membership into the newer more conservative body known as the Evangelical Covenant Order (ECO) of Presbyterians.
Monty Montgomery, elder and co-moderator of the Session-Appointed Discernment Coordinating Committee at HPPC, told The Christian Post that the process of joining ECO has already begun.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
Its an Episcopalian Church. The rector...the pastor...is a former cop from Georgia..who was ordained on Alaska of all places.
he made a quip on Sunday relative to Passing It So We Can Find Out Whats In It....
Its a heavily conservative.bunch of people.
Is it affiliated with the REC(Reformed Episcopal Church) or with the conservative Anglican movement under the authority of African bishops?
It must really suck to have to split off from a congregation because it went south, so to speak.
Im not certain of the “official” affiliation.
we had a pastor who retired about three years ago..and spent quite a while searching for one who met the specifications.
No Gay Marriage..
The Ten Commandments are NOT suggestions.
A couple of the wanna be prospects...were something to behold ..I can assure you
I’m trying to figure out the difference between the ECO and PCA. Is ECO semi-liberal?
That’s why I like to attend a church that firmly holds to a Biblically orthodox confession of faith and affirms things like the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of Christ, life, natural marriage and the natural family and limits the office of elders to males only.
Actually the majority of the church voted to leave. But the rules that were in place was a 2/3 vote was required (I think that is the number)
Clayton Bell (Dr. Nelson Bell’s son)was the pastor at that time and advocated staying within PCUSA and working to reform it from within (which probably caused a percentage of the congregation to vote to stay rather than leave), but most felt that the denomination as a whole was too far gone.
It was very unfortunate that even though a majority wanted to leave at that time it just wasn’t quite a large enough percentage to be able to leave under the rules. It was really close, something like 62% and we needed 66%, so that is why it was so heartbreaking and painful for that church at the time.
These were rules that had been put in place when the Southern Presbyterian church (I think it was PCUS?) rejoined with the Northern church in the 1970s; The Southern Presbyterian denomination was still fairly conservative, but the northern pres denom was very liberal. They had put in rules that within a certain number of years a former southern Presbyterian church could leave with its property if they decided they didn’t want to remain within the “merged” denomination, but only with a fairly high percentage of the vote - they made it a pretty high hurdle to jump over.
There are still quite a few very conservative PCUSA congregations that have hung around to fight for the local properties that they built themselves. I have in-laws who've spent their lives in a strong, Bible believing church in exurban North Carolina, and they've been ready to jump for years. Now that PCUSA's congregations have won the right to leave the denomination intact, we can expect to see all of the remaining good ones leave that rotting corpse in the very near future.
‘It was very unfortunate that even though a majority wanted to leave at that time it just wasn’t quite a large enough percentage to be able to leave under the rules. It was really close, something like 62% and we needed 66%, so that is why it was so heartbreaking and painful for that church at the time.
These were rules that had been put in place when the Southern Presbyterian church (I think it was PCUS?) rejoined with the Northern church in the 1970s; The Southern Presbyterian denomination was still fairly conservative, but the northern pres denom was very liberal. They had put in rules that within a certain number of years a former southern Presbyterian church could leave with its property if they decided they didn’t want to remain within the “merged” denomination, but only with a fairly high percentage of the vote - they made it a pretty high hurdle to jump over.’
I have no trouble believing the liberals in the Northern church would put impose such requirements on the Biblical conservatives so they could try to infiltrate and take over.
Thank you for the information about the Highland Park/Park Cities split. The good thing is that God brought Park Cities PCA into existence and a lot of good has come from that wonderful church.
I hope so. And that the Biblically conservative churches stay true to God’s word.
Full disclosure: I'm Roman Catholic.
To be honest I dont know...but some OF the Prayer books look as though they have been in use ..since the 2o’s.
When my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), split from the PCUS in 1973, one of its founding principles was that each local congregation would own its own property. If the PCA were to ever fall into the kind of apostasy that destroyed its corrupt parent, its congregations would be free to leave. And we would!
Amen! I can assure you that our Session would initiate separation in a heartbeat if the PCA ever fell into apostasy.
I have a friend, an Episcopalian, who stumbled onto a little summer chapel in a Jersey shore town that used the 1928 prayer book and he was very impressed with both its language and its orthodox theology. The chapel was “endowed” and had tremendous autonomy from the bishop and the national church.
This Church is very much like that except for the financial autonomy.
And that is as it should be! That the liberal denomination holds the congregation hostage for its property is just so evil. That property (and really, the property of any church) represents the time, talents, gifts, love, and sacrifices of many members through many generations. This is a church that has done evangelism, Bible teaching, sent many, many missionaries overseas and ministered in poor communities in Dallas, they have used that beautiful property with excellent stewardship.
The denomination just sees the $ signs and holds them hostage for that. Some say that the denomination is so apostate and they should just leave (and they should), but I am glad they are putting up a fight for the property and am praying the Lord will let them find favor in the secular court system. I hope any on this thread reading about this and interested will pray for them too.
I didn't say that the Rainbow girls had anything to do with the gay-lesbian agenda. I KNOW what the Rainbow girls were all about. Remember these were my NEIGHBORS...for years and years. I KNOW what they try to teach the girls. You're preaching to the choir.
Amen!
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