Voting to Leave PCUSA and Join ECO

Last night our congregation voted 815 to 55, with 1 abstention, to leave the PCUSA denomination and join ECO. This is a panoramic photo of our sanctuary while we were waiting for the vote results. This is the fullest I’ve ever seen our church!

I’ve posted a 21 minute edited video from last night’s vote to YouTube. The announcement of the result starts at 12:17, which you can view directly using this link.

Unfortunately the local media coverage (both in last Friday’s Daily Oklahoman / on NewsOK and this morning’s local NPR radio report) have focused almost exclusively on the issue of gay ordination. As I explained in my public comment on the NewsOK article (and others at our church have continually done) this is one element, but not the main issue which led to this historic congregational vote and decision to leave our denomination for ECO.

To learn more about the reasons our church decided to follow this path, I highly recommend Mateen Elass‘ March 30th editorial printed in the Edmond Sun newspaper, “First Presbyterian Church seeks new path.” Mateen read most of that article Sunday prior to his sermon for our congregation.

NewsOK / The Daily Oklahoman posted an article today about the results, “Edmond congregation votes to dissolve denominational relationship.”