While Memorial Park leaders said their members’ 664-25 vote with three unmarked ballots means the church is now a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a presbytery official said, however, that under denominational law he still considered it part of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The ballots were handed out during one Saturday service and three yesterday to people whose names were checked against a membership list. The ballots covered four separate questions:
Ӣ Disaffiliating from the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Ӣ Affiliating with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Ӣ Amending church bylaws to remove any mention of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Ӣ Affirming all of its current pastors, elders and deacons.
The 692 ballots represented less than half of the church’s 1,675 members, but the number was close to its usual Sunday attendance in January. Memorial Park is the largest church in the Pittsburgh Presbytery, which has 155 churches and more than 40,000 members.
The votes this past weekend had been expected to be uneventful, given that the church’s session, or governing body, had voted unanimously earlier this month to disaffiliate, and the congregation had voted 951-93 in June to seek dismissal from the national church, believing it had strayed from biblical authority and no longer fully adhered to classical Christian doctrines.
What, now the Presbyterians are going to claim to be hierarchical?
They’re Presbyterians for mercy’s sake!