c. 2007 Religion News Service

(RNS) A network of Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations has one foot out the door after voting en masse to build a new bridge with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The New Wineskins Association of Churches says it’s tired of battling the PCUSA over theology and policy and has found a better fit in the EPC, a small denomination founded in 1981.

“It’s huge,” said the Rev. Gerrit Dawson, a co-moderator of New Wineskins. “For years, conservative churches in the PCUSA have talked about what we should be doing … and at last a concrete step has been offered.”

It’s still unclear how many Presbyterians will be taking that step.

At a New Wineskins convention Feb. 9 in Orlando, Fla., 130 churches voted unanimously to set up a “transitional” presbytery, or governing body, with the EPC, Dawson said. But only a third of New Wineskins’ 150-odd “endorsing” churches is ready to leave the PCUSA immediately, said the Rev. Dean Weaver, the other co-moderator of New Wineskins.

The “curtain opening” on the new presbytery could come as soon as Oct. 29, Weaver said.

Founded in 1981, the EPC is based outside Detroit in Livonia, Mich., and has about 180 congregations and 75,000 members. The Louisville, Ky.-based PCUSA has 2.3 million members in 11,000 churches.

Because the two denominations are in communion with each other, it may be easier for PCUSA congregations to switch to the EPC and avoid costly battles over who owns the property.

At the Orlando meeting, about 500 New Wineskins Presbyterians gathered to discuss two “faithful options.” One is to remain in the PCUSA and swim against the church’s progressive tide. The other is to join a yet-to-be-created presbytery within the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Under that plan, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church will vote at its assembly in June to create a non-geographic presbytery to house New Wineskins churches for five years. New Wineskins parishes will be self-governing _ allowed to ordain and dismiss pastors and retain ownership of their property. They would have five years to join the EPC or go their own way.

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s stated clerk, the Rev. Jeff Jeremiah, was not available for comment. But Weaver said he’s certain the EPC supports the move. Jeremiah has written that the transitional presbytery “will allow churches interested in coming to the EPC to provide safe haven outside their current denomination as quickly and as easily as possible.”

New Wineskins was founded in 2001 to push for orthodoxy within the PCUSA. Conservatives’ anger was piqued last summer when the denomination voted to crack the door open for gay clergy and include more gender-inclusive language when discussing the Trinity.

“It’s realigning with other Reformed Presbyterians with whom we have a lot more theological agreement,” Dawson said.

But New Wineskins churches and the EPC still have some things to iron out _ including the ordination of women. New Wineskins churches support it, while the EPC officially leaves decisions on female clergy to its eight regional presbyteries.

Weaver said women’s ordination was a “non-negotiable.”

“There’s a strong likelihood they’re going to have to change on that,” Weaver said.

Churches that leave the PCUSA will also have to negotiate with their presbytery over property. Local presbyteries may allow churches to leave and take their property to other Reformed bodies, said the Rev. Gradye Parsons, the PCUSA’s director of operations.

But Parsons said he remains hopeful that local presbyteries can convince New Wineskins churches to stay within the PCUSA.

“We consider them still a part of the PCUSA and we look foward to having more conversations with them,” Parsons said.

KRE/RB END BURKE

Editors: Gradye in 17th graf is CQ.