The most prominent issue was acceptance of local option on gay ordination, but those departing say that changing sexual standards reflect a broader disregard for the biblical authority. Defenders of the changes compare them to earlier reinterpretations of scripture involving women’s ordination, divorce and slavery.

Members of Pittsburgh Presbytery expressed grief and frustration with three churches that recently voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) without going through the constitutional process for doing so, while the church’s national moderator, who coincidentally was at their regular meeting Thursday, said he had offered to meet with leaders of those churches and two others that are pursuing the formal process for leaving.

Representatives from only one of the five, later identified as Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland, agreed to meet with the Rev. Neal Presa. About 140 churches are in the countywide presbytery.

During the meeting at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Bethel Park, Rev. Presa said the theological concerns cited by the churches that want to leave must be taken seriously.

“These are actions and reactions that have been bubbling up for a long while. They are not knee-jerk actions to something that happened yesterday,” he said.

Recently, Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church, Round Hill Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth Township and the First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown voted to secede without going through nine to 18 months of discussions with presbytery officials or negotiations over property. They joined the more theologically conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

At least 200 other churches have similarly left the 1.9 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) since 2007.

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