VPC TO JOIN ECO DENOMINATION

On May 23, the Presbytery of the Grand Canyon voted 96% to 4% to dismiss Valley Presbyterian Church. You will recall that our Valley 2.0 team, after a year and a half of study, recommended this reaffiliation to our Session. Session agreed and nominated a negotiating team. This was followed by two years of discussion with the Presbytery Administrative Committee (PAC) and consultation with the congregation. The PAC concurred with our desire to go to ECO (A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians) and eventually mediation led to an approved settlement.

In exchange for outright and undisputed control of our property, in the form of a quit claim deed, we agreed to pay over 10 years:

• $312,252 in unpaid per capita

• $766,909 representing 10% of estimated value of our property

• $350,000 in mutually agreed mission funds ($175,000 to Family Promise, already present in our mission budget, and $175,000 to three Presbytery designees: camp scholarships, native ministries, and new worshipping communities).

Some of you are very excited about these decisions and some may be wondering what they mean for our relationship to our past and our prospects for the future:

• Reaffiliation for VPC is an affirmation of our past, not a repudiation of it. It allows us to relate in a deeper way with congregations we have always been close to, like Mountain View Presbyterian, which our predecessors helped to plant, as well as to reconnect with our previous partners in the large church network which left the PCUSA to form ECO several years ago. Reaffiliation means continuity, not discontinuity of our most vital and important inter-church relationships.

• Reaffiliation also allows our theological identity, our intellectual heritage, to continue. The PCUSA is increasingly isolated from the global church and the most vital and diverse sections of the American Christian community. Its theological shifts have made it a kind of tiny island, sacrificing its reformed identity and its place within Orthodox Christianity on the altar of an increasingly radical, revisionist approach to scripture and tradition.

• Reaffiliation is an affirmation of our traditional, confessional, biblical outlook. It increases the possibility of ecumenical connection and partnership.

• Affiliating with a new denomination doesn’t violate the unity our Lord commands from us. At the final dismissal meeting of the Grand Canyon Presbytery, we were accused by one delegate of disobeying Jesus and destroying unity. But what sort of unity does God desire among His followers and their churches?

Jesus names the unity He wants us to have in the gospel of John, particularly in His final discourses. He never mentions legal unity, procedural unity, institutional unity, or denominational unity. He describes five forms of unity:

• Relational unity: “I don’t call you servants any longer but friends.” John 15:15

• Missional unity: “As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you.” John 17:18

• Doctrinal unity: “What the Father gave to me (to know) I have given you.” John 17:7

• Liturgical unity: Jesus includes the disciples in the first communion and His great prayer.

• Final or heavenly unity: “I pray you will know the glory I had with the Father before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24

Formal institutional unity exists only to serve these five deeper unities of friendship, mission, truth, worship, and ultimate transformation. Further, as the ecumenical movement and the history of Presbyterianism shows, all of these forms of unity can be achieved without exclusive legal and institutional ties. Genuine Jesuscommanded unity can happen whenever Christian communities join in shared belief, deep fellowship, real worship, and effective mission. We will have to wait to experience final unity, but I am certain denominations won’t exist in heaven!

During the fall, we will get to experience together some exciting aspects of our new life in ECO. You will get to see the character of our new partnerships and connections, explore our new resources, and hear about new initiatives for impacting the Valley and growing the kingdom. Our staff and Session are very excited about the possibilities. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, please contact me.

Love and Blessings,