Despite having concerns about the spiritual and structural health of the presbytery and denomination, Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church has offered another approach to addressing concerns about the PCUSA

On the heels of a large congregation in San Francisco Presbytery leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), one church has made a public pledge to stay put.

Despite having concerns about the spiritual and structural health of the presbytery and denomination, Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church has offered another approach to addressing concerns about the PCUSA, while honoring the decision by sister congregation Community Presbyterian Church in Danville, Calif., according to a congregational letter.

Walnut Creek Senior Pastor Morgan Murray and the church’s session want to blaze a trail for staying in the denomination and fostering healthy relationships with like-minded congregations. Though supportive of CPC’s decision to leave the PCUSA, the Walnut Creek letter listed key reasons for staying:

The need to remain in relationship with other congregations that share common values;
Standing with smaller congregations in the presbytery, in a big brother role;
Seeing the “willful disregard” of the PCUSA constitution as the problem, not the actual constitution.

“When I accepted my call to WCPC, I believed I was called to be ‘salt and light’ and a champion for health in our presbytery,” Murray said in the letter. “I now despair that (San Francisco) Presbytery’s issues are too acute and, frankly, its leadership too convinced that what the Presbytery has been doing should be called ‘good,’ to believe it will be reformed as it is currently constituted.”

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