The Louisiana Presbytery (LAP) of the Presbyterian Church in America voted earlier this year to dissolve. This was a preliminary action which still requires approval of the PCA General Assembly. In order to facilitate the dissolution process, LAP erected a Joining and Receiving Committee (J&R) with the responsibility of recommending specific enabling actions.

The Presbytery has made contact with adjacent Presbyteries, including North Texas, Southeast Louisiana, and Mississippi Valley, as well as the Presbytery of the South of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, to alert them to LAP’s action and to see if they would be willing to receive member churches. Each church in the Presbytery has been asked to decide which court it would desire to affiliate with, and to inform LAP by December 15. At this time, no formal decisions have been made; informal contacts and discussions are still ongoing.

Presbyteries would have options on how to receive teaching elders, ruling elders and churches. One way that has been suggested is that the receiving Presbyteries follow the procedure used in the PCA’s Joining and Receiving of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES) in 1982. Former LAP churches would join the new Presbyteries and be received by them without examination. Another option would be for each Presbytery to examine LAP teaching elders and ruling elders of each Session, and receive each church in the same manner as receiving a church from another denomination.

In a recent letter to LAP, the Joining and Receiving Committee made the following recommendations to Presbytery:

1. Bethel, John Knox, and Oaklawn should report to the clerk their decision as to where they want to go by December 15, 2011.
2. Once item #1 has been decided, a formal written request should be sent to the clerks of Mississippi Valley, North Texas and Southeast Louisiana Presbytery.
3. The clerk should send a letter or email to any TE’s without a call and chaplains and get their decision by December 15, 2011.

Once all of the decisions have been made, LAP will overture the PCA General Assembly which will be meeting next June to formally request that Louisiana Presbytery be dissolved at that time.

A prayer request: In putting this story together, LAP’s Clerk, Dr. Jim Jones, who is also pastor of DeRidder Presbyterian Church in DeRidder, La., asked for prayer for his wife, Deb. She is continuing to struggle with cancer and is receiving treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Deb has breast cancer with no primary breast tumor; the cancer first showed up in her spine in several places, one of which is in her right knee, the leg that continues to swell and hurt even after treatment. She has had 10 radiation treatments and is on pain medication. Please pray for the swelling in her legs that prevents her from walking without hurting or standing for long. Jim stated the following in requesting our prayers, “Our God is a merciful and gracious God and we know that He has a good purpose in all this for us as His children. It is a trial but we find encouragement and hope in the love of God who does all things well.”