It has now been a month since the Fellowship of Presbyterians (FOP) had its inaugural rally. Apparently, this movement was created in order to answer the question, “How can we separate from the main herd without jeopardizing church property and/or ministerial pensions?” I think those who have placed high hopes upon this movement will be disappointed.

First of all, they offer five “tiers” or possible avenues for congregations to pursue. Lack of common goals or purpose is enough to kill any movement. Tier one says, “Let’s get together once in a while and have a gripe session.” I’m not sure how constructive a gripe session can be. Tier five says, “Let’s pull out completely and go join the EPC.” Churches were doing that already.

Secondly, tiers 2, 3, and 4 all straddle-the fence, denomination-within-a-denomination options at different levels. They all require the willing cooperation of the existing structures of the PCUSA. My question here is, why would anybody suppose that the existing structures of the PCUSA will give their willing cooperation to the Fellowship of Presbyterians? What would they have to gain by doing so? I would think that the existing structures of the PCUSA look upon the Fellowship of Presbyterians about the same way Sitting Bull and the Sioux Nation looked upon wagon trains and the Seventh Cavalry.

This is how it will play out: The Fellowship of Presbyterians and PCUSA officialdom will enter into discussions and dialogue—endless rounds of dialogue. They will appoint study commissions that will recommend further study. I believe this is called “stonewalling.” They will still be discussing and studying long after the PCUSA has become so reduced that its General Assembly is meeting in a bowling alley in downtown Lander, Wyoming.

For a brief moment I wondered if perhaps this whole Fellowship of Presbyterians idea was a ruse created by the PCUSA in order to give conservative congregations the false impression that something significant was happening when really, nothing was. I quickly abandoned this thought, however. The hierarchs of the PCUSA could never be that creative.

Ultimately, conservative congregations that remain in the PCUSA will still be left with the same stay-in-or-leave decision that they have always faced.

Larry Brown is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a member of Central South Presbytery, and serves as Professor of church history, world history, hermeneutics and missions at the African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi