Lewes Presbyterian Church parts from national denomination

Lewes Presbyterian Church has separated from the national denomination Presbyterian Church (USA). Local officials say the national denomination's liberal interpretation of scripture is not in line with the local church's more conservative approach.

Shortly after the official separation earlier this year, Lewes Presbyterian Church aligned itself with the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, a denomination formed in 2012 by former congregations of the Presbyterian Church (USA). ECO, as it's called, has grown to more than 200 congregations nationwide, with Lewes Presbyterian and White Clay Creek Presbyterian in Newark as its only Delaware congregations.

Issues that led to the separation vary from Presbyterian Church (USA)'s stances on political issues, such as same-sex marriage, to the organization's bureaucratic structure.

Jim Miller, who helped negotiate Lewes' deal to separate from PC(USA), said he's seen the national denomination change significantly over the years.

“The purpose of a denomination is to support local congregations to connect with other churches,” he said. “[PC(USA)] is a huge bureaucracy. It has changed over the years, from one of supporting the congregations to a top-on-down approach.”

Theologically, he said, the PC(USA) also abandoned the basic beliefs of the religion. He said Book of Confessions, containing the creeds, confessions and catechisms the denomination is based on, is no longer central to PC(USA)'s philosophy.

“It's like when you buy a Chevrolet, you expect certain things,” Miller said. “There are no rules, basically. Even today the Book of Confessions is there and the organization does what it wants.”

ECO is more in line with Lewes Presbyterian Church's beliefs, Miller said. Whereas the Book of Confessions was several hundred pages, Miller said, ECO's statement of theology is 20 to 30 pages.

“It's pretty short and sweet,” he said.

While same-sex marriage and ordination of gays and lesbians have been in the headlines, church elder Fred Beaufait said the issues are much more broad.

“The real issues were that we felt the church denomination was becoming very liberal, becoming more politically correct and changing its interpretation of the scriptures,” he said. “Our church has been conservative its whole existence, and that was very troubling to us.”

Lewes Presbyterian Church was founded in 1692 by the Rev. Samuel Davis. It is considered one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in the country, with connections to the Rev. Francis Makemie, the father of Presbyterianism in America. The New Castle Presbytery, the regional group LPC was previously a part of, is also one of the oldest in the country.

Miller said ECO is going back to the roots of Presbyterianism, with a focus on supporting local congregations. While the denomination has grown significantly since its inception, he said, it is still considered quite small. The regional group that Lewes is a part of – the Presbytery of the Northeast – will never have more than 20 churches. The existing regional presbytery stretches to Maine; when more congregations join ECO, the presbytery will likely split into smaller regional groups.

Lewes Presbyterian Church's separation from PC(USA) did not come without challenge from the national organization. The national group laid claim to the local congregation's property and trust.

Both the Lewes and White Clay Creek congregations had to negotiate with the national organization to hold its property. White Clay Creek paid PC(USA) more than $200,000, while it cost Lewes about $500,000, Beaufait said.

The result, though, was that the local congregation now owns the property – and under the new alignment with ECO, the national denomination will never have any claim.

To read the full history of Lewes Presbyterian Church, go to www.lewespresbyterianchurch.org.