Posted on 01/28/2012 12:57:14 PM PST by SmithL
A break-off group from the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) launched a new conservative evangelical fellowship during a meeting in Florida in mid-January. The name of the new denomination is the 
Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO), which came together in response to the severe liberalization of the PCUSA over the past several years, particularly its decision last year to allow the ordination of openly homosexual clergy (see The New American’s coverage).
The new denomination will be under the umbrella of another recent entity, the Fellowship of Presbyterians, which was launched last year in response to concerns among clergy “about the health” of the PCUSA, particularly its steady loss of members over the past four decades as it has compromised on biblical theology in an effort to maintain cultural relevancy.
Although “homosexuality is not mentioned in the ECO’s founding documents,” the Washington Post noted in its report on the new denomination, “its stated commitment to conservative theology and the inerrancy of the Bible indicates that gay clergy will not be tolerated.”
Reuters News reported that 2,000 Presbyterians from some 500 PCUSA churches nationwide attended the conference, many of them curious about the new fellowship, but not yet ready to cut ties with the mainline denomination.
As reported earlier in The New American, the “PCUSA is one of several mainline denominations in the U.S. that have split with the historic Christian teaching of homosexuality as sinful. Others include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, and the United Methodist Church.”
While conceding that the issue of ordaining homosexuals provided momentum for the breakaway group, “ECO leaders speaking at the conference leveled other complaints against the [PCUSA], including excessive bureaucracy, complacency, declining membership, and the tendency to become a ‘big tent’ religion, accommodating all at the expense of their reading of scripture,” noted Reuters. According to the ECO’s president, John Crosby, that tent “has become so broad that it’s falling down without center poles.” He added that “the [necessary] tent pole is biblical authority understood in the orthodox community and that has implications for all sexuality.”
ECO’s leadership said that interested congregations will able to join the new denomination outright, committing to its authority exclusively, or simply affiliate with the fellowship without dropping their ties to the PCUSA.
Predictably, PCUSA’s leadership responded to the breakaway with some concern, with a group of eight elders from the august denomination pleading with disenfranchised members and congregations not to allow “one-sided presentations to be all you consider as you seek to discern God’s call to you and your congregation.”
In explaining the purpose of the new denomination during ECO’s founding conference, the Rev. John Ortberg of Menlo Park (Calif.) Presbyterian Church told the assembled that “our problem is hell [and] our job is to put hell out of business. That’s why Jesus went to the cross on a Friday and laid in a tomb and rose on Easter morning.”
Referring to the acronym “ECO,” which the denomination’s website explained speaks in part to its “commitment to strengthen the ‘ecosystems’ of local churches,” Ortberg said that the goal of the new fellowship would be “to build a spiritual ecosystem that in turn builds flourishing churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ.”
In conclusion, Ortberg defined the mission of the new Presbyterian denomination by posing a question to the assembled clergy and laity: “Who is ready to be a servant and a partner and soldier in an army that is advancing against hell?... Will you devote the rest of your life to be part of such a church?” One observer noted afterward that in response, those present “rose to their feet in spontaneous standing ovation, giving the speaker his answer.”
Bump for later.
PCA does not allow the ordination of women. ECO does.
PCA does not allow the ordination of women. ECO does.This is certainly an oversimplification, but it looks like PCA is similar to LCMS (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod), while ECO is more like the newer LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ) or the NALC (North American Lutheran Church).
I thought the conservative alternative to PCUSA was Presbyterian Church in America
One of several. This chart may help clarify.
There are several conservative (Bible believing) presbyterian denominations. PCA as you mentioned, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, Orthodox Christian Reformed Church, Reformed Church in the US. . .
oh good...yet another protestant denomination that thinks that it is now the right one...
Worth noting that the process of Prebyterian congregations departing PCUSA is not as easy or fincially painless as the process for Lutheran congregations departing the ELCA.
In adddition to the requisite meetings, supermajority votes, and consultation with higher entities the local Presbytery assesses a multi-thousand dollar departure fee which must be paid, even if the congregation predates the formation of the Presbytery (as in the case of a congregation in my county with which I am very familiar).
Wow - the chart looks just like the federal agencies organization chart under Obamacare!!!!
< shrug>. The chart covers almost 300 years (not scaled linearly). Most of the groups are small.
the Rev. John Ortberg of Menlo Park (Calif.) Presbyterian Church told the assembled that “our problem is hell [and] our job is to put hell out of business.
What on earth does this mean? Our world is not of this world.
This group simply sounds like they'll take all the baggage that is presently in the PCUSA except for homosexuality. I had to laugh at the term "ECO" and the leaf looking cross. They must think it's a good marketing tool.
So you must support homosexual priests simply because you've been told to accept them by the Church. Well, there certainly is a number of PCUSA members still following that "bottom line authority" so is that what you're saying?
As far as people washing their hands of organized religion, what else is new? People's hearts are darkened. Churches need to look at quality-not quantity.
This group simply sounds like they'll take all the baggage that is presently in the PCUSA except for homosexuality.
To be expected. Anyone who's lasted this long in the PCUSA probably isn't all that conservative.
Indeed. A quote from their website:
“However, the new Reformed body (NRB) is fully committed to God’s equal call on women and men in ministry and leadership, while the EPC leaves room for individual congregations to draw different conclusions on the issue. We don’t want to impose our convictions on the EPC, nor let the issue of women in ministry be a point of contention within the NRB.”
It’s laudable that they don’t want to impose the requirement of ordaining women on a denomination that doesn’t share that view. However, history has already taught us that “gender-neutrality” always ultimately leads to the endorsement of homosexual behavior eventually.
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