In an historic move for First Presbyterian Church in downtown Colorado Springs, almost 90 percent of its membership voted Sunday to leave the church’s main governing body in the United States.

“What is broken down is a common vision and a common purpose,” Senior Pastor Jim Singleton told a standing-room only crowd at the church Sunday afternoon as he advocated for the split from the Presbyterian Church USA. “When we look at the national organization, it no longer connects here.

Sunday’s vote was the culmination of 10 months of work by church leaders to distance themselves from the mainstream governing body of Presbyterian church in the United States, which voted in May 2011 to allow openly gay ministers to be ordained. Singleton cited several other scriptural reasons for the split and said that the move has been “coming for a long time.”

The church, 219 E. Bijou St. was founded in 1872 and, with 4,000 members, is one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in the United States.

At Sunday’s informal vote, 88 percent of the members present voted to split with the Presbyterian Church USA and align with a new-formed governing body, the Evangelical Covenant Order, or ECO. That governing body is so new that it doesn’t even have members yet, because all of its expected members are still in the process of splitting off, Rev. Singleton said. He is on a leadership council that helped create ECO.

To help make the split amicable, the church’s regional body — the Pueblo Presbytery — developed guidelines for what it calls a “gracious dismissal policy” for congregations that want to leave. As part of the policy, the Pueblo Presbytery, which owns the church’s buildings, agrees not to take the buildings if the church agrees to pay a rate based on membership for five years. Over those years, the church estimates it would pay between $650,000 to $700,000.

To start the move,at least 80 percent of members at Sunday’s meeting had to vote to leave. Since that guideline was met, the church will proceed with the split and soon take a formal vote, probably in late April, said Alison Murray, leader of the church’s ministry staff.

The issue of openly gay ministers was not discussed much at Sunday’s meeting. Church leaders instead focused on telling congregants how they came to the decision to split and why they felt it was necessary. In January, church leaders voted unanimously to make the split.

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On Monday, March 5, 2012, Rev. Jim Singleton, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, wrote the following note to the congregation following the congregation vote on March 4.

Dear Saints at First Pres,

I want to offer a big thank you to all who attended the Congregational Gathering on Sunday afternoon. It was the longest congregational gathering most have ever attended, but in Presbyterian polity it was likely the most important such gathering most have attended here. To put attendance in perspective, there were more here and voting than were in attendance when I was called as senior pastor seven years ago. Over 1500 were in attendance and over 1300 voted. The result of the vote was that a little over 88% voted “yes” to leave the PCUSA and join ECO. A little over 4% voted “no” and a little over 6% indicated that at this point they were unsure of their decision. Lots of issues surfaced at the meeting – issues we hope to address shortly. At this time, we do not have a firm date for the second meeting as it depends in part on permission and scheduling with the Presbytery. But we will know soon.

As always, in all of our planning there are things that happen that require us to make a decision in the moment. There were several members of the press in our midst; one group diligently returned three times throughout the day. We always prefer to make sure that the congregation hears news of the decisions it makes first. However, yesterday evening when asked the question directly as to the results, it seemed that the best decision was to allow the press to have that information. I apologize if that decision hurt any of you, because it certainly was not our intention. When we do have our final vote, the counting and the transmission of the decision will be done differently. We expect to have the vote in the morning and we will all gather in worship later that day to hear the decision together as a community, the way it should be.

The vote yesterday was very important and the process we are in to leave the PCUSA is significant. And just as important is the understanding that these are critical moments for us to show love and patience with each other and with the surrounding culture. Leaving a denomination, making a change, heading off into an unknown future – all of these will require great grace. Some of you are delighted to ponder a second vote and leave the PCUSA. Others are reluctant or disappointed, some are confused. All of us have concerns about how we are perceived in Colorado Springs and in wider places. All of us want to be a part of a church that is open to all peoples and does not limit our ability to reach any group of lost people who will shy away from First Pres because of the vote and its perception in the media. I expect that the media interest will continue and we will see stories and hear things from the media over these next weeks that will cause us sadness. In the days and weeks to come, let’s all commit to honoring each other as we continue to discern. I think this season of Lent, our Journey to the Cross may test our sense of community as much as anything we have ever faced. May the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.