Process for Dismissal from the PC(USA)

This section of our website, explains the process for dismissal from the PC(USA) to the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. The following questions and answers help explain the process for dismissal and what is involved in terms of property and how it works. We will continue to update this page as we progress in this process.

 

 

Gracious Dismissal Policy

1.   What is involved in the Gracious Dismissal Policy?  The Gracious Dismissal Policy is the policy that our Pueblo Presbytery developed in order to help any church in the Pueblo Presbytery that wishes to be dismissed from the PC(USA). This policy applies to every church in the Pueblo Presbytery (every Presbytery in the PC(USA) makes its own requirements for dismissal.)

2.   What else should I know about the process of leaving the denomination?  In addition, it is important to understand the distinction between First Pres asking to be dismissed from the PC(USA) and deciding to leave the PC(USA). The policies we live under in the PC(USA) require the Presbytery to dismiss us and they have to dismiss us to a reformed body. That means that First Pres can’t become an independent church (like New Life or Woodmen Valley Chapel) but that we are dismissed from the PC(USA) to another denomination that is reformed in theology. ECO is reformed in theology and its polity is Presbyterian.

3.   I heard that the Presbytery owns our property. What does that mean?  Member churches in the PC(USA) use their property in trust for the Presbytery. That has been the case since the beginning of this denomination. This means that even though we pay for our buildings (including the maintenance, construction, expansion, additions, etc.), we allow the Presbytery to, in effect, hold the franchise option at Bijou and Nevada. Pueblo Presbytery owns our buildings. In order for us to leave the PC(USA) we will have to pay Pueblo Presbytery.

4.   How does dismissal from the PC(USA) affect our property?  Property and decisions about property are all made at the Presbytery level, so each presbytery across the country has developed different standards and different ways to calculate how much money a church would owe if it leaves and wants to ‘take’ its buildings. In the Pueblo Presbytery, the Committee on Ministry (COM) developed what’s called a Gracious Dismissal Policy and passed that policy last October 2011. This policy applies equally to all churches in our Presbytery. Other Presbyteries will treat this property issue differently.

5.   Okay, I understand, but what is our bottom line on property?  Within its Gracious Dismissal Policy, Pueblo Presbytery is not exercising their right to our property. First Pres will pay to Pueblo Presbytery our per capita (per member rate that we pay yearly) for five years. For us this amount will likely be between $650,000 and $700,000 (paid out over the five-year period).

In the new denomination, the ECO, we will own our own buildings. They will not transfer in trust to the ECO but they will transfer to and be owned by First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs.