At our meeting on Monday, April 9, your session responded to a question from a presbytery task force that has been appointed to deal with a request by the French Camp Presbyterian Church to seek dismissal from Saint Andrew Presbytery so they may join the Associate Reformed Church.
The task force recommended our session, along with all other sessions in Saint Andrew Presbytery, consider three options in regards to the French Camp Church's request:
1. To recommend a lease option whereby the French Camp Church would pay the presbytery an annual fee of $2000 a year for 99 years to lease their church facilities from the presbytery.
2. To propose a "buy out" similar to how the presbytery handled the Charleston request for dismissal a few years ago.
3. To accept or reject the request by the French Camp session.
After considerable discussion, ten of our twelve session members present at the meeting voted for option 2 and two elders voted for option 3: To reject the request by the French Camp session.
We will communicate our recommendation to the task force and the question of how to respond to the French Camp congregation's request for dismissal will be discussed at our next presbytery meeting on May 1 at the Ripley Presbyterian Church.
The request for dismissal from the French Camp session comes on the heels of an unprecedented move by the session of First Church in Corinth. At the beginning of the stated presbytery meeting in Leland last month the session of the Corinth Church presented the presbytery with a court injunction forbidding the gathered assembly to speak about the Corinth Church or conduct any business in regard to the Corinth Church. We understand it is the intention of the Corinth Church to be dismissed with their property. Due to their legal action against our presbytery this matter is now tied up in the court system.
The sessions of French Camp and Corinth claim their requests for dismissal are justified based on the actions of the General Assembly last summer in regards to the question of whether to ordain gays and lesbians as elders and ministers. In my opinion the actions of the 2006 General Assembly in no way warrants such a response. That General Assembly took the following actions:
1. Left in place the definitive guidance that says candidates for ordination must live in fidelity within the marriage of a man and a woman or celibacy as a single person.
2. Strengthened the presbytery process for examining and installing elders and ministers.
3. Left in place the language in the Book of Order that says a congregation shall not be dismissed from a presbytery with their property without negotiating the purchase of their property from the presbytery since the presbytery holds in trust all the assets of each congregation.
However, some sessions in our presbytery and others have decided to follow the leadership of their misguided ministers and seek to leave our denomination. This is primarily effecting our presbytery, the Presbytery of Mississippi (from Jackson to the Gulf Coast); the Presbytery of Memphis; and San Diego Presbytery. It is not a major issue in the vast majority of presbyteries across the United States. Your session, including your pastor, intend for Batesville Presbyterian Church to remain a member of Saint Andrew Presbytery and the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Having lived through a similar experience some years ago in Memphis Presbytery, when Second Presbyterian Church pulled out of that presbytery, I can tell you that the presbytery survived and since has thrived, even though Second Church was considerably larger in the number of members and giving than both of the congregations requesting dismissal from our presbytery.
During this painful process we will continue in mission and fellowship with Saint Andrew Presbytery. In the meantime, I solicit your prayers for the sessions, ministers, staff, and Executive Presbyter of Saint Andrew Presbytery.
Peace,
Dr. Jon Burnham, Pastor
Batesville Presbyterian Church
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