» News: More PCUSA Churches Leave Denomination, Plan to Join EPC

Sunday, the largest church in the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church USA denomination voted overwhelmingly to leave the PCUSA and affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Senior Pastor, Dean Weaver, was quoted by the Christian Post saying their aim was to "realign ourselves with other Presbyterians in our country and around the world who believe the same things we do and have the same passion for evangelism and for missions." 958 members out of the 1,051 who voted approved this change in affiliation. See coverage also in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and a brief discussion on Free Republic.

The previous Tuesday, May 29th, Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church (SMPC) in the PCUSA's East Tennessee Presbytery voted to leave the PCUSA and take steps to join the EPC. Signal Mountain's vote was also nearly unanimous and the PCUSA presbytery noted that it could detect no "identifiable PC(USA) remnant" in the church and that it was not "in schism." The PC(USA) presbytery dismissed SMPC and allowed the church to retain its property. SMPC has not contributed church funds to the denomination since 1993, though the agreement to release the church included several conditions, one of them being continued "mission support" for the East Tennessee Presbytery in the amount of 500k payable over five years.