Session adopts San Diego-like statement on future PCUSA ties The Layman Online Friday, March 24, 2006 The session of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Wenatchee, Wash., has adopted a statement similar to the San Diego resolution that raises questions about its future with the denomination. Paul Pankey, associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church, sent The Layman Online a copy of the session's resolution, which calls for "immediate action" if the General Assembly takes steps to repeal the denomination's prohibition against ordaining practicing homosexuals. The Wenatchee session adopted its resolution on March 12. It was based on the statement that was by the San Diego Presbytery on March 21. In particular, the session's resolution targets recommendation 5 of the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity. That recommendation would permit ordaining bodies to decide on their own if the constitutional ordination requirement – G-6.0106b in the Book of Order – is essential. The Wenatchee resolution is an expansion of the San Diego resolution, which was adopted after Gary Demarest, co-moderator of the task force and one of the most prominent members of the presbytery, presented to the presbytery his arguments in favor of task force report. The Wenatchee session is the first to publicly announce that it is poised to take action depending on how the General Assembly deals with the task force report and other issues related to the ordination issue. Specifically, the resolution says, that if "such due provocation comes to us via the aforementioned diluting of these standards and essentials, then the actions upon which we shall deliberate for decision shall be the following: 1) To declare that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in a state of constitutional crisis and deep Biblical and confessional defection. 2) To recognize and acknowledge the breach in the covenant that binds our congregations and presbyteries together in the Presbyterian Church (USA). 3) To assume primary and exclusive responsibility for government under our Presbytery of Central Washington because such a breach nullifies and voids the covenantal obligation to abide by the polity and discipline of higher governing bodies. That is, by its own action, the Presbyterian Church (USA) will have broken covenant with our church and our Biblically based Central Washington Presbytery and divested itself of any authority to exercise governance over FPCW and the Presbytery of Central Washington. 4) To explore what, if any, long-term future association or relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be sought collectively by First Presbyterian Church Wenatchee and to encourage the same within and by our Presbytery of Central Washington. The full text of the session's resolution: 1) To renew our commitment to focusing our energy, staff, finances, membership, and prayer on continuing as a healthy congregation to the glory of God. We have committed to five primary areas. By God's grace, according to the will of God and to his greater glory: a. We will enhance as a church committed to inspiring worship; b. We will extend as a church committed to transformational fellowship with a strong emphasis on holistic small group ministry; c. We will expand as a church committed to personal discipleship with an emphasis on excellence in continuing Christian education for all ages for the exultation of God; d. We will enrich as a church committed to gift-oriented ministry encouraging all our members to become active in using their gifts in edifying service within this body of Christ for God's praise; e. We will engage as a church committed to telling the unsaved in this valley and beyond the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ alone. We will do this by allowing the Holy Spirit to ignite the elect with his boldness and power, and through need-oriented evangelism and mission endeavors. 2) To continually pray that the Presbyterian Church (USA) be restored to the peace, unity, and purity of a church in fidelity to its own constitution, faithful to its Reformed Heritage, fervently united in its Biblical and confessional identity and mission; 3) To deepen our connectional bonds within the Presbytery of Central Washington and to affirm our current Presbyterian polity, commitments and heritage; 4) To abide by the standards set by the Constitution including the words currently expressed in G-6.0106 and G-6.0108 as the eligibility requirements for ordained leadership within Central Washington Presbytery in conjunction with the San Diego document on the essentials of the Reformed faith affirmed by our own Central Washington Presbytery in year 2005. 5) To take immediate action in the event of a change in those standards and essentials, with particular awareness of and focus upon any change to weaken G-6.0106 and/or G-6.0108-whether changed by official action, approval of the authoritative interpretation recommended by the Theological Task Force or simply rendered meaningless by means of official inaction to uphold the standard of the historic Church. If such due provocation comes to us via the aforementioned diluting of these standards and essentials, then the actions upon which we shall deliberate for decision shall be the following: a. declare that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in a state of constitutional crisis and deep Biblical and confessional defection. b. To recognize and acknowledge the breach in the covenant that binds our congregations and presbyteries together in the Presbyterian Church (USA). c. To assume primary and exclusive responsibility for government under our Presbytery of Central Washington because such a breach nullifies and voids the covenantal obligation to abide by the polity and discipline of higher governing bodies. That is, by its own action, the Presbyterian Church (USA) will have broken covenant with our church and our Biblically based Central Washington Presbytery and divested itself of any authority to exercise governance over FPCW and the Presbytery of Central Washington. d. To explore what, if any, long-term future association or relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be sought collectively by First Presbyterian Church Wenatchee and to encourage the same within and by our Presbytery of Central Washington. Rationale for the above: We are, by God's mercy in Jesus Christ, the First Presbyterian Church of Wenatchee. We are the corporate expression of the Presbyterian Church in the Wenatchee Valley, along with all other evangelical churches within this valley. We are part of the Presbytery of Central Washington and along with them are part of the guiding and governing body whose purpose is to carry out the mission, ministry and government of the church within our boundaries to achieve the great ends of the church. We affirm our Presbyterian commitments and heritage and pray for their continuation to the glory of God. We have been hurt and hindered by those who have previously covenanted to stand with us under the aegis of Holy Scripture for the glory of God, but who are now flirting with culture more than adhering to Christ and his written Word as the only rule of faith and practice for the Christian life and ministry. We declare that the covenant of Biblical faithfulness and loyalty of our First Presbyterian Church Wenatchee with the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in danger of being broken. And as FPCW is part of the wider Biblical and evangelical Presbytery of Central Washington, we declare that we believe its covenant too, with the wider PCUSA, is in danger of being broken by the possible actions of the wider PCUSA. There are three primary areas for our concern. They are theology, polity, and accountability of the wider PCUSA. Theology: We at FPCW are committed to proclaiming the gospel. We have been hurt by actions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) that have deliberately or recklessly sanctioned confusion and derision of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ alone, apart from Whom there is no salvation. We affirm the Biblically repeated truth that only in and through Jesus Christ exclusively has God's grace determined to act for the salvation of any who will believe in Christ. We have been hurt by statements that God's grace may act beyond the Lord Jesus Christ to save other people in other ways that we do not know about but are somehow possible. We believe such options or possibilities impugn the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, as well as the pactum salutis, the eternal intra-Trinitarian agreement between the Father, the Son and the Spirit to save all who would profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Polity: We are committed to being confessional, connectional, and Constitutional. We have been hurt by the denomination's behavior abandoning these classic Presbyterian traits, as well as by members of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity refusing to declare clearly the self-avowed unrepentant practice of homosexuality to be a sin. Accountability: We renew our commitment to focus our energy, staff, finances, membership, and prayer on becoming an increasingly healthy congregation in a presbytery of healthy congregations to God's glory. We have been hurt by the denomination's systemic rewarding of defiance, as well as by its thwarting and marginalizing those who would be faithful to the infallible written Word of God and abide by Biblical ethics. We declare that the covenant between the First Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) is in danger of being broken by those who no longer stand with us. As the 217th General Assembly (2006) approaches, there is a very real possibility – in response to the report and recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity – by direct action or by institutional forbearance, that the standards for ordained persons regarding Biblical requirements for Christian obedience in the area of human sexuality will either be voided or rendered meaningless. If the Biblical truth as well as our PCUSA current Constitution is voided or rendered meaningless, the covenant will be broken – but it will not have been broken by FPCW. We grieve that these issues have caused division between the presbytery and the denomination. These are fights we have neither sought nor desired. Nonetheless, we are required to recognize that by the denomination's formal action or informal forbearance, we as faithful Biblically defined Presbyterians are thrust into a position of having to agree or not agree to foundational changes in the terms of the covenant into which we entered. In short, we do not and cannot agree to abandon the faith we were called to proclaim. The First Presbyterian Church of Wenatchee stands strongly committed to: a. pursuing the Christian faith expressed by confession; b. establishing, encouraging, and strengthening relationships among congregations that are connected in our Presbytery of Central Washington and within the wider PCUSA; and, c. abiding by the promises we make to each other in the form of the Constitution. Further and in conclusion, we once more declare that it will be the Presbyterian Church (USA) that has moved away from the essential convictions that formed the covenant we received and entered when becoming part of the PCUSA.

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