PCUSA Presbytery Debates: Fog - Form of Government

PCUSA Form of Government Debate: The Fatal Flaw

When I first read the Form of government document, I thought that this was a wonderfully concise document that would streamline our polity processes in the PCUSA and enable us to be more effective. Everything was going well with Fog and I until I read the following clause; I realized then that I could not support this constitutional change:

G-4.0207 Property of Congregation in Schism

The relationship to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of a congregation can be severed only by constitutional  action on the part of the presbytery (G-3.0303b). If there is a schism within the membership of a congregation and the presbytery is unable to effect a reconciliation or a division into separate congregations within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the presbytery shall determine if one of the factions is entitled to the property because it is identified by the presbytery as the true church within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This determination does not depend upon which faction received the majority vote within the congregation at the time of the schism.

That very last line was a shocker to me. Presbytery will decide which is the true church no matter how many people make up the majority faction. This means that if in a church of a thousand, 995 people vote to leave the denomination and only 5 remain behind, then presbytery has the right to call them the “righteous remnant” and therefore keep the property. I thought that we had a Reformation to stop this ecclesiastical land-grabbing from occurring? It seems that with this FOG, we are back in the feudal system of the medieval church.

The rest of the document is wonderfully written and very clear, however this one clause will make me vote against its imposition. Presbyterian rights have been fought for almost five centuries; I do not intend to quietly let this pass under the radar….