Saint Andrew’s Chapel, a prominent Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation in Sanford, Florida, overwhelmingly voted to leave the denomination just two years after joining it, with the final tally 669–108.
One of the largest PCA churches in the country, with more than 1,100 members, Saint Andrew’s was formerly led by the late R.C. Sproul.
The decision to disaffiliate comes months after senior pastor Burk Parsons was suspended indefinitely from the pulpit after being found ‘guilty ‘of unbecoming pastoral conduct by the PCA’s Central Florida Presbytery. Parsons previously plead guilty to similar charges in 2019 and received admonition at that time.
Many members have criticized the disciplinary actions against their pastor, however, describing the charges as spurious and unfounded.
It was originally thought the church would wait for Parsons’ appeal of his suspension before acting, but they ultimately proceeded with the vote this past Sunday, with 86% deciding to depart.
In addition to the charges against Parsons, the church faced criticism from the presbytery over a lack of financial transparency with members. The church reportedly refused multiple requests from members to provide them with financial statements detailing expenses and the salaries of the Teaching Elders and staff.
Getting nowhere with the church, member Doug Risavy filed a complaint with the Central Florida Presbytery. The presbytery formed a commission and, after investigating, agreed with the requesting members that Saint Andrew’s needed to provide the budget information requested. The commission pointed out that the church’s own bylaws pledged to provide this information to members when asked, and then proceeded to educate the newly inducted church that financial transparency was central to Presbyterian governance.
Despite the rebuke and instruction, Saint Andrew’s declined to comply or participate further.
Now independent of the PCA, the church has not yet finalized whether it will remain unaffiliated or join another conservative Presbyterian denomination. They’ve sent letters to members outlining possible next steps under consideration.
6 responses to “Saint Andrew’s Chapel Votes To Leave the PCA Two Years After Joining”
There is a factual error in this report. The church leaving the PCA does not affect the action of the presbytery against Parsons. Parsons’ credentials remain with the presbytery and the action is ongoing. A pastor’s membership in the PCA is in his presbytery and his church’s membership in the PCA is separate from his, so that it will take two separate actions for both Parsons and the church to leave. This action only affected the church.
Um, okay, so? What does this mean?
Parsons can resign from the PCA or be removed from membership in the presbytery. He cannot pastor a different PCA church without presbytery approval.
The past tense of “plead” is “pled.”
This article leaves out two important points:
1) Pastor Parsons case is currently being appealed to the Standing Judicial committee of the PCA.
2) In contrast to many other well functioning PCA presbyteries, the Central Florida Presbytery is particularly dysfunctional.
I’m a new member of SAC and the PCA. I’m extremely distraught over these shenanigans. I spent many hours in prayer and meditation about which church to join upon moving to CF. I would not have joined SAC had it been “independent” or non-denominational. I feel like the Session muddied the waters with emotional framing, push-polling, and deceit in order to manipulate the members to vote in their favor. I will not be staying in a church that doesn’t value discipline and has no oversight. I believe presbyterian polity is the only sound and biblical form of church governance. However, with SAC of of CFP, CFP will now drift further left. I guess I’ll be looking into ARPC or RPCNA.