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A Tulsa, Okla., megachurch lost a two-year property battle in court Tuesday when the county district judge ruled in favor of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Judge Jefferson Sellers ruled that the the Kirk of the Hills church property belongs to the PC(USA) and the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery, a regional body of the denomination, and not the local congregation. The 2,400-member Kirk of the Hills congregation, which was the second largest church in the regional presbytery, has been in legal battle over the property since it split from the PC(USA) in August 2006. After an overwhelming vote to leave the denomination,...

In a move that echoes a division in the Episcopal church, at least three Valley Presbyterian churches are taking steps to move to another denomination over differences about the Bible and homosexuality. Officials at Valley congregations say they are at odds with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination, over its decision to drop a church standard that potential ministers, deacons and elders live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."

Tulsa, Okla., September 9, 2008 – Tulsa County District Judge Jefferson Sellers ruled today that the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) and the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery of the PCUSA (EOP) own the Kirk of the Hills property at 4102 E. 61st Street, under the denomination’s constitution... The Kirk of the Hills paid for the property over the last four decades and the deeds are in the Kirk Corporation’s name. ... The Kirk has been in a legal battle over this property since the Kirk withdrew from PCUSA denomination in August 2006. ...

A third lawsuit has been filed involving Peters Creek United Presbyterian Church, whose members voted 207-26 last year to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the more theologically conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. On Monday the minority, who Washington Presbytery has declared the "true church," sued the majority, asking the Washington County Common Pleas Court to remove the officers of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and return all property to control of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Last year the majority sued Washington Presbytery, the local governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA), for the right to keep all property. Last month Washington...

Clovis native Rebecca Sitterly registered to vote soon after returning to her native state in 1979 and jumped right into Democratic politics about the same time. So the former Bernalillo County district judge was surprised to get a July 3 call from a community nonprofit that was checking on her new registration. When Sitterly said she hadn't filled out a registration form (indeed, she'd been regularly voting in the same place on Mountain Road NW in Albuquerque for nearly 20 years) a supervisor with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now promised to destroy the card, Sitterly said in...

This year, in addition to Woodland Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, more than a dozen PCUSA congregations have left with their property from the denomination, or are seeking dismissal.

Bruce Reyes-Chow "PCUSA" is a "mainline" denomination of 2.3 million members. This is the spirit of the times (zeitgeist): certainly not the Holy Spirit. According to a story from the Catholic News Agency: San Jose, CA., Jul 8, 2008 / 11:57 pm (CNA).- Reaction continues to the decisions of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), which took place between June 21 and June 28. The assembly nullified proscriptions against sexual behavior outside of marriage and called for a vote to delete the church’s constitutional standard requiring fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. It also...

San Jose, CA., Jul 8, 2008 / 11:57 pm (CNA).- Reaction continues to the decisions of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), which took place between June 21 and June 28. The assembly nullified proscriptions against sexual behavior outside of marriage and called for a vote to delete the church’s constitutional standard requiring fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. It also initiated a process that could remove mention of the Bible’s prohibition against homosexuality form the Heidelberg Catechism. The moves are seen by some as an attempt to clear a path for the eventual ordination...

The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of baptizing active homosexual lifestyle as God-blessed. Since 1960, that denomination has decreased in membership by 48%. The United Methodist Church has been roiled by those adamant on establishing homosexual lifestyles as Christian legitimate. In the fight for one side or another that denomination has decreased in membership by 25%. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has likewise been embroiled in the tussle. That denomination has decreased in membership by 44%. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has also been riddled with in-house fighting over homosexual lifestyles as anti-God or pro-God. That denomination's membership...

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination on Friday (June 27) cracked open the door to ordaining non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy, though the decades-old fight is far from over. Delegates at the Presbyterian Church (USA) meeting here voted 54 percent to 46 percent to remove a clause in their constitution that requires clergy to be either married and faithful or single and chaste. But the action still needs approval by a majority of the denomination's 173 regional bodies, called presbyteries, and similar moves in recent years have twice failed to win ratification on the local level. In...

PALO ALTO, Calif. — As their biannual meeting concluded last week, Presbyterian Church leaders took some actions that irritated Jewish groups, but steered clear of the talk of divestment from Israel that ignited a firestorm in Presbyterian-Jewish relations in 2004. On Friday, the church's general assembly, in a 504-171 vote, approved a resolution endorsing a proposal for Middle East peace crafted in Jordan last year. Known as the Amman Call, the plan includes a "right of return" for Palestinian Arabs that Israel has rejected because it could produce a wave of immigration that would mean the demise of Israel as...

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s highest governing body voted Friday in favor of a proposal that would allow for the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians. The 218th General Assembly, meeting in San Jose, Calif., this week, voted 380-325 to send the overture – that would delete the requirement that clergy live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between and a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness" – to the denomination's 173 presbyteries for approval. Adding to the blow to conservatives, the Assembly also adopted a supplementary authoritative interpretation of the PC(USA) constitution that would allow gay and...

Two years ago, American Jewish community relations groups were busy patting themselves on the back for achieving a signal victory in turning back the attempt by anti-Israel radicals to hijack the Presbyterian Church USA. After the Presbyterians became the first Protestant church to embrace divestment from companies doing business in Israel in 2004, Jewish groups worked hard to overturn the decision. When the church voted to back away from this stand in 2006, it was rightly seen as a triumph not just for friends of Israel, but for the tactic of outreach itself as years of tenacious diplomacy paid off....

The Presbyterian Church (USA) lost 57,572 members in 2007, the worst decline in decades, according to the official statistics released by Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick on Saturday. That leaves the denomination with 2,209,546 members, 2 million fewer than the number of Presbyterians who were members of the predecessor denominations in 1965 that merged in 1983 to form the PCUSA. Kirkpatrick's office projects even higher losses in 2008 and 2009.

Many of American Jewry's largest religious and advocacy groups have lashed out in the past few days at the Presbyterian Church USA for a new document published by the church that warned against anti-Jewish bias in the church's pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace. The new document "does more to excuse anti-Semitism and foster anti-Jewish motifs then it does to dispel them," according to a strongly worded letter to church leader Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church, from Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue...

The regional governing body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and representatives of the Stow Presbyterian Church have reached an agreement that allows the local congregation to keep the church property. The pact comes after 18 months of discussions between the Stow church and the Eastminster Presbytery, according to the Rev. Dan Schomer, who leads the Mineral Ridge-based presbytery, which includes 55 churches in Summit, Portage, Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties. ''The action to dissolve the congregation effectively severs the ties of the church to the denomination and permits it to continue its ministry as an independent congregation,'' Schomer said in...

United Methodists declared Monday a "banner day" as they approved a full communion agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The new relationship between the two major Protestant denominations is not a merger but a recognition of each other's ministry and mission. Full communion recognizes that each church has "the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith" expressed in the Scriptures and confessed in historic creeds and the core teachings of each denomination. The two churches also recognize the authenticity of each other's baptism and eucharist and the full interchangeability of all ordained ministers. "It's not merger," said Bishop Melvin...

Tiburon, Calif. (AP) -- The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has found that a Northern California minister did not violate denominational law when she officiated at the weddings of two lesbian couples. The ruling announced Tuesday by the Louisville, Ky.-based court overturns a decision against the Rev. Jane Spahr last year. A regional judicial committee had found Spahr guilty of misconduct and gave her a rebuke — the lightest possible punishment. The church's high court found that the ceremonies Spahr performed were not marriages, so she did not violate the church's constitution. The panel reiterated the church's position...

A judge ruled April 8 in favor of the motion for a summary judgment filed six months earlier by First Presbyterian Church in Roseville, Calif., which had been seeking quiet title to its property, as well as declaratory and injunctive relief, since March 2007. She also ruled against a competing motion for a summary judgment filed by the presbytery. *** "If you saw from the decision of the court, under California law, trusts are presumptively revocable unless the trust instrument makes them expressly irrevocable," he said. "And in the plain language, as we argued to the court, the plain language...

Several U.S. mainline Protestant denominations are about to face their latest showdowns on one of the most vexing issues since slavery: whether to break from biblical morality as traditionally understood to allow clergy with homosexual partners and to sanction blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. "Mainline" groups (predominantly white, with early American roots, and affiliated with the National Council of Churches) contain vocal, well-organized liberal and evangelical combatants. The resulting dispute "certainly has taken a big toll," says Jack Haberer of Presbyterian Outlook, an independent magazine that airs varied views. "For some, it's the total compromise of all things moral. For...

Divestment: Coming to a Denomination Near You   By Dr. Earl TilfordFrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, April 03, 2008 For a generation after World War II, particularly given revelations of the Holocaust, most American Protestant denominations embraced a more tolerant attitude toward Jews. Since the 1980s, however, there has been a marked shift, evident in the anti-Israeli positions adopted by more liberal denominations like the United Methodist Church (UMC); the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA); and the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA).At its April meeting in Fort Worth, the National Conference of...

-snip- Tissues will be needed Sunday when the north Oak Cliff church, known for community service, closes after 118 years. -snip- Trinity has struggled for years as an aging, predominantly Anglo church in a neighborhood turned largely Hispanic. Average Sunday attendance has dwindled from 100 to 40 in the last decade...Indeed, about a third of Trinity's faithful now live at Grace Presbyterian Village, a seniors community in east Oak Cliff. -snip- In the last few years, Trinity tried various strategies, including advertising that it is openly welcoming to gay people. But nothing reversed the decline.

The majority of a large southwest Florida church will officially leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Good Friday, following a decision by the regional presbytery to allow their departure. Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers, Fla., a congregation of 1,340 members, had voted last month to request dismissal from the PC(USA). The majority, 76 percent, voted in favor of leaving, citing that the denomination is headed in a liberal direction. And 24 percent voted against it. Peace River Presbytery declared the church divided and denied the congregation's request to leave. The presbytery, however, created an administrative commission to negotiate with...

FLOWER MOUND, Texas -- The cemetery next to the Flower Mound Presbyterian Church was a peaceful, well-kept place until Tuesday night. An overflow of voters trying to join the caucus next door ended up leaving muddy tire tracks through the cemetery. One vehicle's tire actually got stuck in a recently filled grave. Many voters parked on the shoulder of a gravel road winding through the cemetery, right next door to the church where the voting was taking place. One witness says motorists either didn't notice -- or didn't care -- they were parking just a few feet from buried bodies....

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Presbyterian Church (USA) is anticipating annual membership losses will reach 46,544 in 2008, growing to 50,000 in 2009, and another 43,436 members expected to leave the denomination in 2010. Those projections of 139,980 members leaving the PCUSA in the next three years follow on actual membership losses of 91,649 over the past two years - 43,175 in 2006 and 48,474 in 2007, according to a report released Feb. 13 at a joint meeting of the General Assembly Council and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly.

A legal complaint pitting a Mississippi congregation that left the Presbyterian Church (USA) against the Presbytery of Mississippi has been returned to state court by a federal judge. Grace Chapel Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Madison, Miss., is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent Mississippi Presbytery from violating a final declaratory judgment that resolved a property ownership lawsuit that the church brought against the presbytery in March. Mississippi Presbytery moved the church's request to U.S. District Court within 30 days of its Aug. 29 filing, saying there was a federal question about the free exercise of religion under the First...

CANONSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Washington Presbytery officials are expected in court on Friday to contest a claim to church property by a western Pennsylvania congregation that voted to leave the national church. A property dispute arose after members of the Peters Creek Presbyterian Church voted in November to leave the Presbyterian Church USA and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church based in Livonia, Mich.

Two of the largest churches in Sacramento Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will leave the denomination with their properties for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church on Jan. 1, now that their dismissal requests have been approved. Presbytery commissioners agreed at their stated meeting Dec. 4 to dismiss Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in Fair Oaks, Calif., the presbytery's largest with 2,286 members, and First Presbyterian Church in Roseville, Calif., the presbytery's third-largest with 1,143 members. The vote totals were 146-18 for the Fair Oaks Church's dismissal, said Bill Cole, an elder and spokesman for that church, and 153-11 for the Roseville...

First Presbyterian Church of Quincy and the Presbytery of Great Rivers have reached an agreement that will allow the church an orderly transfer to a different denomination while keeping its building and grounds. First Presbyterian will pay the presbytery $196,000 on Jan. 9, a figure that allows the church to be sole owner of the property and facilities at 1027 S. 24th. The agreement also releases both parties from any future claims, damages or demands. *** First Presbyterian Church also will change its name before March. Part of the agreement with the presbytery allows First Presbyterian to temporarily use that...

A magistrate in Summit County Common Pleas Court has ruled that the property at Hudson Presbyterian Church belongs to the faction of the congregation that voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Magistrate John Shoemaker on Friday rejected the argument of the Eastminster Presbytery that all property of the church is held in trust for the denomination as outlined in the PCUSA constitution. - snip - He also said that the presbytery's attorney is filing objections to the magistrate's ruling because it contradicts the denomination's constitution.

One of south Louisiana’s largest Presbyterian churches is splitting with the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination. Baton Rouge’s First Presbyterian Church announced in an e-mail Sunday that its members had voted 425-61 that morning to end a 25-year association with the Presbyterian Church (USA) -snip- Also, First Presbyterian, a church of about 1,500 members with Sunday attendance of about 700, plans to continue financial support to the presbytery during a five-year transition period.

Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church was dismissed from the Pittsburgh Presbytery yesterday so it could join a more conservative denomination -- the first of what could be several votes over divisive theological and ecclesiastical questions. - snip - According to the settlement between the presbytery and the 400-member church, Beverly Heights will keep its building and land -- together valued at more than $1 million -- and the rights to its name. In exchange, it will pay the presbytery $250,000 over 10 years and forfeit $46,655 in a trust account. - snip -

Two of the largest churches in the Sacramento Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are requesting that the presbytery dismiss them to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in Fair Oaks, Calif., the presbytery's largest congregation with 2,286 members, and First Presbyterian Church in Roseville, Calif., the presbytery's third-largest congregation with 1,143 members, held congregational votes Oct. 14 on seeking dismissal. At Fair Oaks, 1,179 voted to request dismissal and 39 voted to stay in the PCUSA, the church's Web site stated. About 1,700 members were at the worship service that preceded the vote and 1,218 of them...

-snip- A downtown church has taken the unusual step of opening its parking lot to as many as 150 people who sleep on cardboard mats or blankets under the nightly protection of a security guard. Two portable toilets are provided by the church. First Presbyterian Church recently established the "safe haven" because police in this city — known for intolerance of the homeless — have started removing people found sleeping in public places. -snip- "A majority of property crimes in downtown Dallas are caused by the homeless. I'm not saying all homeless commit crimes, but the suspects, arrested persons we...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The Episcopal Church isn't the only mainline Protestant group shaken by open conflict between theological liberals and conservatives. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing similar trials, with traditionalist congregations planning to bolt and a conservative denomination preparing to take them in. About 30 of the nearly 11,000 Presbyterian congregations have voted to leave the national church since the denomination's national assembly session in 2006, according to The Layman, a conservative Presbyterian publication that has been tracking the breakaways. Denominational leaders say they could lose an additional 20 congregations as a result of this latest rupture. The...

NOT ALL OF Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's encounters in New York during his recent trip were testy. The Shiite theocrat had what the New York Times called a "warm, even friendly exchange" with 150 church officials at the United Methodist Women's Church Center for the United Nations. One sponsor, the Mennonite Central Committee, called the gathering a "time of dialogue and prayerful reflection among the children of Abraham." A Mennonite official further explained that "mutual respect and graciousness in this conversation blunts the demonization which is part of the current rhetoric of both governments." The meeting is the third between...

SOMERSET — With a growing frustration with the national organizations that oversee them, many congregants at two local churches are considering cutting ties with their national groups and forming a new church. Church leaders at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church and St. Francis-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church said they have been talking with members about the direction of national church groups they are affiliated with. -snip- If both congregations agree, members would split from their denominations and erect a new building in Somerset Township where worshipers would come together as members of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

'Tsunami' Hits Presbyterians; Dramatic Changes Ahead Top officials of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have come to the conclusion that they cannot continue "doing church" the way they have been. Fri, Sep. 21, 2007 Posted: 15:57:06 PM EST Top officials of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have come to the conclusion that they cannot continue "doing church" the way they have been. Churches within the PC(USA), the nation's largest Presbyterian body, have "hit the wall" and "come to the end of the string," seeking new directions amid a growing exodus from the denomination. "It is as if a tsunami of change has...

Those who use the Bible to deny equal rights to gays and lesbians are misusing and distorting Scripture, the Rev. Jack Rogers believes. Rogers, the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), will speak Friday and Saturday in Lincoln about the need to end discrimination against homosexuals, both in church and throughout American society. It’s part of a Midwest lecture tour based on Rogers’ book “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church” (Westminster John Knox Press, $17.95), which was published in March 2006. Rogers, who has been on the faculty of Fuller and San Francisco theological...

In a case that potentially may affect many California congregations – including some in the Presbyterian Church (USA) – that seek to be declared the owners of their church properties, the state's Supreme Court unanimously has agreed to review a lower court's ruling regarding property issues. The Sept. 12 decision came in response to a petition by three Episcopal congregations – St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach, All Saints' Church in Long Beach and St. David's Anglican Church in North Hollywood – that sought the review in an effort to overturn a July ruling by Division Three of the...

Peters Creek Presbyterian Church voted 273-86 yesterday to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA ) for the more theologically conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The vote -- which included two abstentions -- represented more than half the church's full membership of 595 and just over 75 percent of the 361 ballots cast. Those percentages would meet the standard that Washington Presbytery set in July to consider allowing churches that want to move to the other denomination to do so along with their property. But because Peters Creek initiated its move before that plan was adopted, the presbytery is not required to consider...

SAN FRANCISCO - A Presbyterian minister has received the lightest possible punishment after being found guilty of violating church law by officiating at the weddings of two lesbian couples. A regional judicial committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ruled that the actions by the Reverend Jane Spahr of San Rafael, California, were at odds with the denomination's constitution. But the court gave Spahr the mildest penalty it could -- a rebuke -- which amounts to a warning not to do it again. She could have been removed from ministry. Spahr, who came out as a lesbian three decades ago, is...

San Francisco (AP) -- A veteran Presbyterian minister was found guilty of violating church law for officiating the weddings of two lesbian couples, the minister's defense team said Friday. A regional judicial committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ruled 6-2 that while the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael "acted with conscience and conviction," her actions were still at odds with the church's constitution, her defense team said in a statement.

A goodwill trip became a near-death experience for 10 Highland Park Presbyterian Church members ambushed and robbed in a Kenyan jungle this month. Some of the members, who visited a small village northeast of Nairobi, were beaten by four men armed with rifles and a machete as they threatened: "We will kill somebody tonight." -snip- Church members hoped to work with engineers on an irrigation project that would save villagers an eight-mile trek each way for water. They also brought items such as Bibles and school and medical supplies for the villagers.

The Rev. Dave Peterson got tired of watching members of his denomination vanish. In 40 years, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) lost half its membership, dwindling from 4.2 million to 2.1 million. "It's amazing to me that we have paid so little attention to that drastic statistic," said Peterson, senior pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church of Houston. In an effort to stop the bleeding, Peterson has joined half a dozen other clergy to plan the second Presbyterian Global Fellowship Annual Conference next week in Houston. Organizers expect 800 people to attend, and although the focus is on the Presbyterian Church,...

Would Jesus Eat at McDonald's? Saturday 11th Aug 2007 by David Paulin The intellectual elite of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have in recent years joined ranks with the radical left. Its members vilify Israel, apologize for Islamic terrorists, and cheer on the Palestinian cause. Now, these Presbyterians have another villain: the Big Mac. America’s most famous hamburger is emblematic of the dark underbelly of globalization, according to David Hadley Jensen, an associate professor of something called “constructive theology” at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas. On top of that, McDonald’s and its iconic burger are even at odds with...

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict continues to be played out on the world stage of politics in a theater of highly charged emotions influencing public opinion. In the latest act the world has suddenly realized that western civilization is now fighting the same murders and suicide bombers that Israel has been fighting during this 60 year drama. Names like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Huzballah, Islamic Brotherhood, once only associated with the Arab/Israeli conflict, are now identified by intelligence services worldwide as terrorist organizations operating in the West. Their goal is to destroy our world in an Islamic Jihad, forcing those who survive to...

An Indiana church that was granted its request to be dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (USA) late last year is now being sued by the Presbytery of Ohio Valley and the Synod of Lincoln Trails over the church's property. Olivet Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Evansville is one of two defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed July 2 in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court in Evansville. The other defendant is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which the Olivet congregation joined after leaving the PCUSA. ... 6. Require "an accounting of the accounts for … funds received by the defendants before and after...

This story online: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07416.htm 07416 July 11, 2007 Stated Clerk issues statement to Presbyterians concerning latest Vatican declaration Kirkpatrick says Catholic leadership has 'mischaracterized' faith by Presbyterian News Service LOUISVILLE - Clifton Kirkpatrick, General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has issued an open letter to Presbyterians joining other churches and ecumenical groups in questioning a recent pronouncement by the Vatican that Protestant churches "are not churches in the proper sense." Kirkpatrick said the July 10 statement, which the Vatican said was endorsed by Pope Benedict XVI, "mischaracterizes our faith" and "reopens questions of Christian unity..." The full...

Community Presbyterian Church in Danville bucks a nationwide trend for the denomination: Its strapping 2,225-member congregation is stretching the seams of its suburban campus. Five hundred children play relay games and climb rope walls in Vacation Bible Camp. About 250 adults sip latte in each session of the video cafe. Elsewhere in the East Bay, even Presbyterian churches whose congregations top the national average of 209 are losing more members than they are gaining. Grace Presbyterian in Walnut Creek lost nearly 200 members from 1996 to 2006. Community Presbyterian in Pittsburg, once a congregation of 180, dropped to 117 during...