The blooming of Mountain Laurel Presbytery

This year in Pennsylvania, a new variety of mountain laurel is blossoming — not the flower, but a presbytery.

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Lehigh and Lackawanna presbyteries, which cover the northeastern part of the state and include one church in New York, are merging to become one, single, new Mountain Laurel Presbytery, named for the state flower of Pennsylvania.

The mountain laurel, which grows across the state and along the Eastern part of the United States, is known for its ability to thrive in rocky soil.

Lackawanna and Lehigh officially voted in favor of the merger at their May 3 joint assembly. The decision was approved by the Synod of the Trinity at its meeting on June 17. On July 11, the General Assembly’s administrative commission on mid councils, newly created during last summer’s 226^th General Assembly, gave final approval.

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Nearly a year ago, the Rev. Denise Pass was called to serve as shared general presbyter for the two merging presbyteries. She emphasizes that she was brought it at the end of a long and involved process. In fact, while these formal steps are recent, Pass said there has been talk of merger among Pennsylvania’s eastern presbyteries going back nearly five decades.

Pass said the ongoing decline in church membership nationally was certainly a contributing factor in the decision to merge, but that other realities more specific to their geographic context also factored in. Portions of that part of Pennsylvania are rural and very sparsely populated, which means that in some cases there may be one small Presbyterian congregation for an entire county.

“There seemed to be a fairly significant disconnect between the denomination and the presbytery and many of the rural or smaller congregations in the presbytery,” Pass said.

When the Rev. Rhonda Kruse was hired as Lehigh’s transitional presbyter in September 2019, talk of collaboration between the two presbyteries reemerged more intentionally. For a while, a third presbytery — Northumberland — was also involved, but eventually dropped out of the process.

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In 2022, Kruse became presbyter for Lackawanna Presbytery as well, and, after a series of staff turnovers,  the presbyteries began to share other personnel as well. Eventually, they began to have joint presbytery meetings and explored what merging might actually look like.

In late 2023, the two presbyteries officially agreed to pursue a merger. The Rev. Karen Kinney was hired as a merger coordinator, with the responsibility of overseeing the union process and ensuring all legal, financial, ecclesiastical and relational needs were met.

Reflecting on the experience upon her retirement in 2024, Kruse said focusing on building relationships between the two presbyteries proved essential.

“The key to the success of all of this was that we were very deliberate about having in-person only meetings, starting in November of ’22,” Kruse said. “We got to know each other, started working on trying to make sure that relationships were being built.”

Pass echoed this sentiment, describing herself as “an adult adoptee of the PC(USA)” who really values the connectional nature of the denomination.

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The Rev. Forrest Claassen, the executive for Synod of the Trinity, praised how intentional the two presbyteries were in discussing clearly and explicitly what their expectations were, describing it as the equivalent of “really, really good premarital counseling.”

The process has involved a lot of technical and logistics work, such as combining committees and writing a new operations manual. But there have been fun elements too. In January, presbytery leaders held a naming contest for the new presbytery. There were a number of suggestions, but Mountain Laurel Presbytery won out.

The name is, perhaps, especially appropriate for a presbytery committed to thriving in the face of a challenging modern church landscape. Claassen explained that many people don’t associate Pennsylvania with Appalachia, but the mountain range does extend through the eastern part of the state. And the region has faced some of the same challenges as its more southern counterparts, with the decline in the coal mining industry leading to extensive job loss and the collapse of some communities. Naturally, these losses have led to shrinking and closing churches as well.

Pass notes that the demographics of their region also lean heavily toward older adults. Nearly 20% of the state’s population is 65 or older, and that group is growing at a rate 20 times higher than the state’s population as a whole. These statistics impact what ministry — and growth — look like for the church.

Still, the attitude of those in the soon-to-be Mountain Laurel Presbytery is not one of resignation. Instead, they are excited and reinvigorated by the change and the possibilities that lie ahead. Claassen said there was a recent synod gathering where presbyteries were asked questions about how their structures might evolve to address changing needs and realities in the church. There were exhibits and presentations, but Lehigh and Lackawanna put on a skit showing who they were, who they are, and where they’re going.

“I’ve seen that enthusiasm within the pastorate and certainly the presbytery volunteer leadership,” Claassen said, “that these folks think this is the next right thing and it’s the season for this to happen.”

Pass sent out a celebratory email on July 15, sharing the administrative commission on mid councils’ approval of their merger. But the process is still not quite finished. They are still drafting documents, Pass said, and there are a few more things to vote on. Also, each presbytery is currently its own corporation, and they need the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to approve the necessary changes there. 
They’re hopeful they will receive that final rubber stamp by November 8, which is the date of their last stated meeting for the year. Either way, Pass says, that day will be a celebration.