Talk:Presbyterian Church (USA)

Inactive and Active Members

I think editors should be reminded that the PC(USA) has both active and inactive members. So, when the 2015 statistic finds 1.6 million active members, that means there are also inactive. In 2012, the PC(USA) reported 1.9 million active and a total of 2.8 million according to the Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches. From 2011 to 2016 the Jewish Council on Public Affairs included information from the PC(USA) which also found up to 3 million total members. In looking, 2012 is the most up to date I have found for total membership and 2012 is more than recent enough for statistical purposes. If anyone can help find a more recent, although that's fairly recent, finding on total members, both inactive and active, it would be very much appreciated! Also, here is a good explanation for what it means to be 'inactive' "Inactive roll: The inactive roll lists the names of members of the church, who, in the judgment of session, have willfully let their active membership in the church lapse. The person must have been inactive for at least one year and session must have diligently tried to discover the cause of the members' non-participation." SeminarianJohn (talk) 06:09, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

What do any reliable sources say about active and inactive membership in the PCUSA? Peace, MPS (talk) 13:23, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

The one I cited on the definition is an official presbytery document and gives a good explanation on the distinction between the two categories. I think I included one from pcusa.org too but I will check to see.Peace back. Here is one source, from the PC(USA) in 2014, saying that there are 2.8 million total members. SeminarianJohn (talk) 03:00, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

References

Puritans

Is this sentence accurate: "Another source of growth were a number of New England Puritans who left the churches because they preferred presbyterian polity." From what I read on the Puritan page, that wasn't an official denomination, so there were Puritans who attended Presbyterian churches, as I understand it (they didn't leave "their churches"). But I'm no expert on that.Nerfer (talk) 00:15, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

@Nerfer: Not sure what you mean by saying Puritanism "wasn't an official denomination." The New England Puritans were Congregationalists (see Congregationalism in the United States). They had the Cambridge Platform and the Savoy Declaration outlining what they believed, which was the same thing as Presbyterians since both groups were Calvinists. As congregationalists, each church was self-governing. Therefore, if you were a Puritan you believed the same thing as Presbyterians, but your church did not utilize presbyterian polity. If you were a Puritan who wanted more "centralization" in your church government, then it would be natural for you to become a Presbyterian. Later, in fact, the Congregationalists (descended from Puritans) entered into the Plan of Union of 1801 with the Presbyterian Church for a number of years since there were so few differences between them. Ltwin (talk) 01:06, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

I was looking at the last paragraph of the overview on Puritans, starting with "The Puritans were never a formally defined sect or religious division within Protestantism,..." I'm no expert on this, but the way I read it was you could be both a Presbyterian and a Puritan, so they didn't necessarily "leave" their Puritan churches. I like your explanation better.Nerfer (talk) 20:16, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

@Nerfer: OK. I think they are talking about Puritanism in England, which actually did tend towards Presbyterianism (the Westminster Confession was written by Puritans). However, Puritans who chose to settle in America were all Congregationalists. Ltwin (talk) 21:19, 3 November 2017 (UTC)