Salem’s dismissal policy required that two-thirds of the church’s active membership be present for each vote taken, which was the case for the church. Ninety percent of Mebane’s active voting membership agreed to the dismissal terms during a Jan. 27 vote, nearly eight weeks after the church’s session and the Salem Presbytery Resolution Team hammered out final conditions for dismissal.

A process that started nearly a year ago came to an end Feb. 12 when Mebane Presbyterian Church [N.C.] was dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

The church will retain the rights to all its property and pay $21,000 to Salem Presbytery to fulfill terms of dismissal agreed to by the parties.

Salem’s dismissal policy required that two-thirds of the church’s active membership be present for each vote taken, which was the case for the church. Ninety percent of Mebane’s active voting membership agreed to the dismissal terms during a Jan. 27 vote, nearly eight weeks after the church’s session and the Salem Presbytery Resolution Team hammered out final conditions for dismissal.

The church of approximately 180 members located in eastern Alamance County of North Carolina started the dismissal process according to the guidelines set forth in the Salem Presbytery Dismissal Policy.

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Smith, pastor of MPC since 1999, indicated that church leaders and members started to become distressed when the issue was not addressed for five months after the session requested pursuit of dismissal in February 2012.

In July 2012, the presbytery contacted the MPC session, two months after the session voted to recommend the congregation affiliate with the EPC acting on counsel from the church’s Denominational  Issues Task Force (DITF).

In August, a Conciliation Team from the presbytery met with the MPC session and its DITF to find out what issues brought up the desire to be dismissed from the PCUSA, and the process picked up steam from there.

The Conciliation Team suggested a congregational vote on dismissal from the PCUSA to EPC, and on Oct. 21, 84 percent of Mebane’s active voting membership voted in favor of dismissal.

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