The Leadership Team of New River Presbytery, responding to “the unfair treatment of our overture” at the 44th General Assembly, has written a letter of complaint to EPC Stated Clerk Dean Weaver. Dated August 31, 2024, the letter was subsequently shared by the Stated Clerk with the National Leadership Team. The entire New River Presbytery also is aware of the contents of the letter. Since it is now public, we would like to share it with the wider family of the EPC because it addresses the troublesome issues observed by many who attended the 44th General Assembly in Memphis this past June.
The stated purpose of the letter is “out of concern for our denomination, respect for the Office of the Stated Clerk, and in hope of achieving reconciliation, peace and healing promised by Jesus Christ to His disciples.” The letter’s chief complaint centers around the unconstitutional and concerted effort to keep the New River overture from debate on the floor of the Assembly, an overture unanimously adopted by an EPC presbytery. New River asserts that the suppression of their overture was for the “express purpose of admitting or protecting sexual dissidents into the ministerial corps of the EPC.”
The New River letter describes the distrust and division resulting from the 44th General Assembly:
“Suppression of dissent and violations of the Constitution, the abuse of Robert’s Rules, and inconsistency of rulings all pointed to a concerted effort to strong arm the Assembly towards a pre-determined outcome at odds with Scripture, the Confession of Faith and the express will of the New River Presbytery. The treatment we received from the platform party has sown distrust and division – a distrust and division that appear to have been carefully and deliberately cultivated. It is apparent from these actions that the peace, unity and purity of the church has been deeply marred – to the point that we are seeking a way of restoration in the Spirit of Christ.”
The letter also makes this observation: “In our experience, our treatment during these past several months has been deeply reminiscent of the way things were typically handled in the PC(U.S.A.).” In response to the letter, the National Leadership Team of the EPC has agreed to meet with representatives from New River Presbytery at the NLT’s January meeting in Orlando.
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