05164
March 29, 2005   

Presbytery cuts ties with Messianic Jewish congregation

by Toya Richards Hill

LOUISVILLE — Philadelphia Presbytery voted Tuesday to end its relationship with Congregation Avodat Yisrael, the Messianic Jewish new-church development it began supporting in 2002.

     “They are into their third year and they have not been meeting their goals for membership, for worship attendance, for education and for congregational giving,” said the Rev. Edward Gehres, executive presbyter of the Philadelphia Presbytery.

     Gehres said the congregation was “not meeting the goals which they set out in the (new-church development) grant application.”

     The presbytery’s decision follows a recommendation made by a presbytery administrative commission created 18 months ago to oversee and govern Congregation Avodat Yisrael.

     The decision, effective July 1, ends the congregation’s relationship with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and cuts off funding from the presbytery, the Synod of the Trinity and the national church. The presbytery will continue to lease meeting space to the congregation.

     “It was a decision arrived at reluctantly by the presbytery and by Congregation Avodat Yisrael as probably the best thing,” Gehres said.

     The Rev. Andrew Sparks, an ordained Presbyterian minister and leader of Congregation Avodat Yisrael, declined to comment on the presbytery’s decision.

     Gehres said the congregation will return to the supervision of Messiah Now Ministries, out of which the congregation was created and which still provides funding for the church. He said Sparks, who was working part-time as executive director of Messiah Now Ministries while Congregation Avodat Yisrael was a new-church development, will work full-time as executive director of the Messiah Now Ministry.

     Avodat Yisrael is not the first Messianic congregation sponsored by the PC(USA), but the issue — especially with regard to Congregation Avodat Yisrael — gained attention in the wake of actions taken last summer by the 216th General Assembly.

     The Assembly ordered a study to “examine and strengthen the relationship between Christians and Jews and the implications of this relationship for our evangelism and new-church development.” Commissioners voted down a proposal to suspend national funding for any other Messianic Jewish new-church development projects.

     On Tuesday, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the General Assembly, said the denomination's relationship with Congregation Avodat Yisrael has “prompted an important conversation for us as a denomination.”