“We left on very amicable terms,” Chandler said. “Our conflict is not with other local Presbyterian churches. The conflict is on the national level.”

The largest Presbyterian church in the San Joaquin Valley has realigned with a more conservative denominational entity, citing discontentment with a growing ideological divide between the congregation and its former national governing body.

First Presbyterian Church, located in downtown Bakersfield, is now affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, ending 27 years of partnership with the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination during an April 22 meeting of the regional presbytery.

Following a unanimous recommendation by the church’s 30-member session to leave the PCUSA for the EPC in February, more than 95 percent of voting congregants approved the move in March, senior pastor Jeff Chandler said.

The church’s decision comes during a period of transition for local Presbyterian institutions, several of which — including Millbrook Presbyterian Church in Fresno and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Clovis — have also severed ties with the PCUSA in favor of the EPC.

“In the midst of our two-year evaluation, it became more and more clear that there was a chasm between our congregation and the direction our national church was headed,” Chandler said. “The national organization, it seemed to us, was moving further and further away from the moorings of orthodox Reformed Christianity.”

The ensuing settlement between First Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of San Joaquin was more peaceful than others of its kind, however.

For one, the 1,000-member church regained property rights from its regional presbytery, which had held the deed in accordance with traditional customs.