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This story located at http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2006/06444.htm
06444 August 30, 2006
2,700-member Tulsa church poised to leave the PC(USA)
Congregation meeting Wednesday to "affirm" session decision
by Jerry Van Marter
LOUISVILLE * Members of the Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Tulsa will meet tonight (Aug. 30) to "affirm" the unanimous decision of the church's session two weeks ago to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
The congregation * which will meet in closed session * will also be asked to "affirm the ordinations" of the Kirk's co-pastors, the Revs. Thomas W. Gray and Roger Wayne Hardy. Both of them renounced the jurisdiction of the PC(USA) when the session voted to bolt the denomination and have not as yet been received as ministers by the EPC.
Gray and Hardy were roommates at Fuller Theological Seminary, according to the Kirk's Web site.
Although Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery has appointed the chair of its council, the Rev. Jim Miller, to moderate the congregational meeting, presbytery executive Greg Coulter told the Presbyterian News Service "they have no intention of even letting {Miller] in the building."
Gray, who no longer has any status in the PC(USA), is slated to moderate the meeting.
"They've declared they're no longer Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), so the rules don't apply to them," Coalter said.
On his blog on the Kirk's Web site, Gray noted that "the constitutional process would have inevitably resulted in removal of the Kirk pastors, as well as the elected elders of the Kirk. This would mean that the denominati on would move in literally to operate all aspects of Kirk of the Hills."
Coulter said, "We tried to be in conversation with them, but they canceled the only meeting we scheduled."
According to the Kirk's Web site, when the session voted Aug. 16 to disaffiliate from the PC(USA), it reincorporated as an independent corporation. The session, acting as the corporation board, then hired Gray and Hardy as pastors and filed suit in civil court to gain ownership of the church's property.
"This is all about the property," Coalter said.
Calls to the Kirk of the Hills were not answered.
On his blog, Gray explained the reason for separating from the PCUSA: "We at the Kirk are holding to what Scripture clearly teaches," he said. "The PCUSA has left this critical foundation. We, therefore, no longer recognize the authority of the PCUSA over any congregation that chooses to hold to the traditional authority of Scripture, as once held by the PCUSA."
Kirk of the Hills is one of a handful of PC(USA) congregations that have voted to withdraw from the denomination since this year's 217th General Assembly adopted an authoritative interpretation of the church's Constituti on that grants ordaining bodies greater leeway in determining individual candidates' fitness for ordination. At 2,700 members, it is by far the largest.
"While not all congregations like us have made this move, many are preparing for it," Gray wrote on his blog. "For those who stay with the denomination, it is a tacit, yet conscious, affirmation of the denomination 's departure from Truth.
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