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07703 October 31, 2007
Largest congregation in South Louisiana Presbytery departs for EPC
Pastor of Baton Rouge-First is New Wineskins co-moderator
by Jerry L. Van Marter Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, LA - at 1,600 members the largest congregation in the Presbytery of South Louisiana - has voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
The vote by the congregation on Oct. 28 - with less than one-third of its members present - was 422-60.
The congregation also voted to authorize the session to make "for a transitional period voluntary gifts to the Presbytery of South Louisiana of some or all of the presbytery portion of the PC(USA) per capita contribution and such other mission gifts as the Session may designate, in its sole discretion."
And the congregation voted to continue to pray for the presbytery and asked the presbytery to hold a formal service of blessing "as soon as practicable."
"This was a defining moment for us," First Church's pastor the Rev. Gerrit Dawson told The Layman Online from Fair Oaks, CA, where he was attending the convocation of the New Wineskins Association of Churches.
"We want to conduct our mission with clarity about the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture," said Dawson, who is co-moderator of New Wineskins, the group that has led the departure of a number of PC(USA) congregations to the EPC.
Dawson is also a member of an EPC administrative commission that is coordinating the assimilation of former PC(USA) congregations into the EPC. First Church will be part of a "New Wineskins Transitional Presbytery" of the EPC for five years.
"The Presbytery of South Louisiana is saddened that we've come to this point," said the Rev. Alan Cutter, the presbytery's executive. "We recognize the years of brick-by-brick building walls of separation, but we will continue to pray for God's continued blessings on them as I'm sure they'll continue to pray for us."
In a letter to members of the congregation posted on the church's Web site before the vote, the session wrote that "the tolerance of a variety of theological viewpoints has led to theological pluralism in the PC(USA)... After the passage of the PUP (Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church) report, discipline is less likely... The PC(USA) is declining and has a limited life span.... Reform has no real chance of success."
The church will take its property with it. The Presbytery of South Louisiana ceded it to the session a year ago.
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