1st Pres Colorado Springs votes to leave PC(USA)

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter

April 23, 2012|5:01 pm

The largest Colorado congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted to leave the denomination over theological differences.

First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs voted Sunday morning to leave the Pueblo Presbytery of PC(USA) in large part due to the denomination's decision in 2010 to allow the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.

Of the 1,769 congregants of the 4,000-strong church present for the vote, 1,689 members voted in favor of dismissal from PC(USA) to join the recently created Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians.

Ronald D. Anderson, executive presbyter for the Pueblo Presbytery, told The Christian Post that he was not surprised by the result of the vote.

"I was not surprised at the overwhelming vote because of the earlier 'straw vote' and the extensive process the church has enacted since to address the questions of people who had unanswered questions," said Anderson.

When asked if he felt that there might be a large percentage of the members who did not vote that would have supported remaining in PC(USA), Anderson stated that he had "no indication that this was the case."

First Presbyterian is one of many PC(USA) congregations across the country that have voted to leave the mainline Protestant denomination due to the decision at the 219th General Assembly of PC(USA) to allow presbyteries to decide to ordain non-celibate homosexuals to church positions.

Amendment 10A, which amended the PC(USA) rules to allow for this, was passed by a vote of the presbyteries with 373 yeas, 323 nays, and 4 abstentions. Pueblo Presbytery voted nay.

In the months that followed, efforts organized by the Fellowship of Presbyterians, a conservative group within PC(USA), led to the creation of a new reformed church body known as the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO).

Last month, as part of the process First Presbyterian was taking for dismissal, leaders at the church asked the congregation to vote on whether or not the church should continue to consider leaving PC(USA).

In that vote, also held on a Sunday, 88 percent of the members approved the continuation of the process for dismissal. In an interview with CP not long after that vote, Alison Murray, leader of staff for First Presbyterian Church, explained that there were many reasons connected to "the decline in the PC(USA)" that prompted members to want to join ECO.

"What we are trying to do is make an adaptive change that would keep us engaged and relevant as a faith community in today's culture," said Murray.

"We don't feel that the PC(USA), the way its structured, is really supporting the local churches in their outreach Kingdom building efforts. So really that is what this is about."

"Under Presbyterian polity only the presbytery can dismiss a congregation," said Anderson, regarding what step in the dismissal process would come next.

"The congregation's request to be dismissed to ECO will come before the presbytery at its next meeting, which is June 16th."

Constitution Party of Wyoming Gains Ballot Access

March 28, 2012 — The Constitution Party of Wyoming (CPWyo) didn’t miss out on ballot access this time.
After submitting more than 6,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office in Cheyenne, the CPWyo was notified this week that it had turned enough valid signatures to become the fifth recognized political party in the Cowboy State. With volunteers gathering signatures at gun shows, in parking lots and from friends and neighbors over the past 11 months, the CPWyo easily surpassed its initial goal of 5,005 signatures.

The CPWyo, which missed ballot access by a mere 388 signatures in 2010, wouldn’t settle for anything less than “Total Success,” the party’s rallying cry throughout this petition campaign, said State Chairman Rex Fritzler.

“This accomplishment is truly a tribute to our volunteers, the men and women who worked so diligently and doggedly to ensure ‘Total Success,’” said Fritzler, a retired U.S. Army veteran who lives near Glendo. “It would have been easy for us, especially after coming so close in 2010, to have quit. We could have just thrown our hands up and told ourselves, ‘Oh well, we tried.’

“But that was never a consideration, not for a minute,” he said. “We simply had too much belief in the Constitution Party and too much love for our country and our state to settle for anything but victory.”
With the CPWyo’s victory, the Constitution Party (CP) has now achieved ballot access in 14 states for the 2012 election. The fastest growing political party in the United States in terms of voter registration, the CP strives to reflect the principles of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

The party’s goals include limiting the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and restoring American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations.

The CPWyo plans to nominate candidates for federal, state, county and local positions at its second state convention June 7-9 at the Agricultural Resource and Learning Center in Casper.

“We’ve been energized over and over again in the last 11 months by the people who have supported our efforts to give Wyoming another choice in the next election and we’re not going to let them down,” said Fritzler, who also thanked the Secretary of State’s Office for its guidance and diligence throughout the petition campaign. “We’re looking forward to identifying constitutionally-minded candidates and supporting them in their efforts to help build a better Wyoming.”

Formed in July 2010, the CPWyo has volunteers in 20 of the state’s 23 counties and has organized groups in six counties. To learn more about the CPWyo or to become involved in the party, go to the official website at www.wyomingconstitutionparty.com.

Napoleon believed the Bible

"The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it." — Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821)

America's Christian Heritage Quiz

Samuel Morse believed the Bible

Samuel Morse, famous for his invention of the telegraph, was a devout Christian who was very generous and gave large sums of money to charity. He was not bitter when other people and companies made fortunes using his inventions, but did not pay him for the use of his patented telegraph. Morse was also interested in the relationship of science and religion, and provided funds to start lectures on “the relation of the Bible to the Sciences.”

Before his death, Samuel Morse wrote;

 “The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God's remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy.”

Isaac Newton Believed the Bible

Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern science, said:



"We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever."

America observes Thanksgiving - Part 5

Resolution of the Senate in 1863 Appointing a Day of Fasting and Prayer

At the close of the session of Congress, the Senate of the United States, March 2, 1863, passed the following resolution:

RESOLUTION

Resolved, That, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, and sincerely believing that no people, however great in numbers and resources, or however strong in the justice of their cause, can prosper without his favor, and at the same time deploring the national offences which have provoked his righteous judgment, yet encouraged, in this day of trouble, by the assurances of his word, to seek him for succor according to his appointed way, through Jesus Christ, the Senate of the United States do hereby request the President of the United States, by his proclamation, to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation, requesting all the people of the land to suspend their secular pursuits and unite in keeping the day in solemn communion with the Lord of Hosts, supplicating him to enlighten the councils and direct the policy of the rulers of the nation, and to support all our soldiers, sailors, and marines, and the whole people, in the firm discharge of duty, until the existing rebellion shall be overthrown and the blessings of peace restored to our bleeding country.

The President’s Proclamation – In pursuance of this resolution and request, President Abraham Lincoln issued the following:

PROCLAMATION

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Dwight Eisenhower Believed the Bible

"The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth. The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality, and hope."


"It takes no brains to be an atheist. Any stupid person can deny the existence of a supernatural power because man's physical senses cannot detect it. But there cannot be ignored the influence of conscience, the respect we feel for the Moral Law, the mystery of first life…or the marvelous order in which the universe moves about us on this earth. All these evidence the handiwork of the beneficent Deity…That Deity is the God of the Bible and of Jesus Christ, His Son".    -- Dwight Eisenhower