The Indian Valley Presbyterian Church, a congregation of Abingdon Presbytery in southwest-Virginia, with sadness and sorrow, hereby announces its separation from the PCUSA.

A Declaration of Independence
for the Indian Valley Presbyterian Church
July 3, 2011

When, in the course of Christian history, it becomes necessary for one congregation to dissolve the ecclesiastical bands which have connected them with a denomination, and to assume a separate identity among the citizens of the kingdom of God, a decent respect to the opinions of others requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all persons are created accountable to God for their beliefs and behaviors. That, to inform these beliefs and behaviors, God has provided an authoritative Word, written under the inspiration of His own Spirit by devout prophets of old and apostles of early Christendom. We believe that church institutions exist to affirm, support, promote and proclaim the inerrant and infallible will of God as revealed in the Holy Bible of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that whenever a denomination, whose sole authority derives from the free and willing consent of its members, departs, denies, or otherwise desecrates the sacred text and teaching of the scriptures then it is the right of faithful Christians to alter, abolish, or abandon it.

The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, hereafter called the PCUSA, is a historic organization that has served her Lord admirably in days long past. There are units of this denomination such as Presbyteries, colleges, renewal groups, congregations, and clergy that serve well still, all while suffering the indignities and shame of a hierarchy fraught with unbelief; the result is dismay, discord, and disunion among its members in the pew.

The Indian Valley Presbyterian Church, a congregation of Abingdon Presbytery in southwest-Virginia, with sadness and sorrow, hereby announces its separation from the PCUSA. It exercises its liberty as free and volunteer members of the PCUSA to disassociate and dissolve all former allegiances and covenants with the PCUSA and its agencies. It submits these statements of fact, each contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture and equally contrary to the PCUSA’s own Book of Confessions, as its justification for this action:

· Judicatories of the PCUSA have affirmed the celebration of so-called marriages between persons of the same gender.
· Judicatories of the PCUSA have affirmed the installation of clergy who deny the deity of Jesus Christ.
· Judicatories of the PCUSA have ordained lesbian candidates for ministry.
· Leaders of the PCUSA regard the Bible as culturally conditioned and of mere human origin. The current PCUSA vice-moderator has stated publicly that Sola Scriptura, a foundational doctrine that holds the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness, is obsolete stating “I think that Sola Scriptura is dead…Scripture is only a reference point to the Word of God, it’s not the Word of God…”
· Structures of the PCUSA continually lobby for the full-inclusion of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) persons in church LEADERSHIP positions.
· Publications of the PCUSA designed for lay study espouse faulty doctrinal positions.
· Medical & Retirement benefits of the PCUSA’s Board of Pensions are extended to same-sex partners of PCUSA employees.
· The PCUSA denominational leadership espouses the faith of pluralism and the dogmas of post-modernism as it affirms the supposed truth of other religions, thus denying the exclusivism of Christianity.
· The PCUSA has ordained clergy who deny the doctrine of the Trinity.
· The PCUSA has ordained clergy who cannot affirm the doctrine of the atonement.
· The PCUSA has ordained clergy who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
· Judicatories of the PCUSA have refused to discipline clergy who violate provisions of the Book of Order.
· “The Presbyterian Church (USA) has institutionalized a culture of unbelief over a period of many decades…. adaptation to cultural mores has been gradual, and, for many persons in the pews, it has been virtually imperceptible. Evidence that it is occurring has periodically erupted in crises, each of which has numbed the membership’s theological and ethical discernment and set the stage for further erosion of what were once its distinctive beliefs and practices.”

We, therefore, the members of the Indian Valley Presbyterian Church in Indian Valley, Virginia, in general meeting assembled, appealing to the Lord of the Universe for the rightness of our intentions, do solemnly publish and declare, that this congregation is a free and independent body of believers; that we are absolved from all allegiance to the PCUSA; that all spiritual and structural connections between us are totally dissolved; and that as a free and independent congregation we have the full power to worship as we deem permissible under God, to select our own governance and leadership, to associate with other faithful believers and organizations of our own choosing, and to manage our own properties and resources according to the principles of law of the Commonwealth of Virginia. And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the blessing of Divine Providence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our tithes, our prayers, and our sacred honor.

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