Mourning for the Church

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every matter under the heavens...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to laugh."
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4

Yesterday, I sent out a letter to the congregation reacting to troubling news of the larger church body of which we are a part, the Presbyterian Church (USA). I will write more on this in the future, but for now, I appreciate the way one group explained the position of those who see this as a departure from truth:

This is a time for grieving for the Church of Jesus Christ. In recent years we have seen one denomination after another forsake its commitment to Scripture, and thus to the Savior and Lord we know only through God's revelation of Jesus Christ in Scripture. With the passage of Amendment 10-A, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has joined that inauspicious list. By a majority vote of its presbyteries, the church has removed its ordination requirement of "fidelity within a covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." We have now become one of the denominations that have effectively removed any distinction between truth and falsehood by permitting what Scripture and our confessions call sin.

As a result of this action, we believe that the PC(USA) faces a grave threat to its unity, as well as its peace and purity. By this vote, the denomination has chosen to break the unity of the larger body of Christ in time and space, defying the wisdom of the Scriptures, the continuous witness of the Church through time, and the overwhelming majority of believers worldwide.

These are troubling times in the Presbyterian Church (USA), but followers of Jesus must continue to speak the truth in love, promote peace, unity and purity in the PC (USA), and invite others by our words and actions to unity of mission in Jesus.


I came to know Jesus in a personal way through a member church of this denomination and I've happily stuck with the PCUSA because of that witness to me. I am not happy about what I predict will happen: we will be significantly smaller and even more deeply divided as a result of this. I am in mourning for the Church of my spiritual awakening.