In January 2025, Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church voted 106 to 13 to leave the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Getting there took a year and a half, an Administrative Commission, two civil lawsuits, and a church trial. On September 29, 2026, Beverly Heights was received as a member church of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), in Bucer Presbytery.
We wrote about it as it happened. This page puts those pieces in order.
2023: The presbytery steps in
In August 2023, the Presbytery of the Alleghenies formed an Administrative Commission to “help” Beverly Heights. In October, the Session asked to be dismissed from the EPC. The presbytery resisted a congregational vote. The Session went to the civil courts and to the EPC’s Permanent Judicial Commission to protect the congregation’s rights.
Reality Is Pretty Strange These Days, Isn’t It?
Tom O’Boyle on the turmoil at Beverly Heights and the charges filed with the presbytery, July 2023.
We Live in Unstable Times, Even in Our Church
Tom O’Boyle on the Administrative Commission’s report and the Session’s move to leave the EPC, October 2023.
January 2024: The case to the congregation
Four “Good Future” reports, explaining why we should go and where we might go next:
God’s Good Future Is a Truth-Telling Future
God’s Good Future
Reasons Why Beverly Heights Should Leave the Evangelical Presbyterian Church
What Is This I Hear About the CREC?
O’Bservations, January 26, 2024
Tom O’Boyle on the lawsuit and the fight over who would be allowed to vote.
2024: The presbytery pushes back
Biden’s Cognitive Decline
Tom O’Boyle’s February 2024 column, on the lawsuit against the presbytery and the postponed congregational vote.
An Open Letter to the POA
Our answer when the presbytery demanded we either submit to its commission or seek dismissal.
We Have the Receipts (or Evidence of Injustice)
What we learned about emotional sabotage, and what we saw.
This Denomination Is Hurting Our Kids
Chad Winkler’s letter to the presbytery, September 2024.
Resistance to Tyranny
The Parrhesian Podcast reports on the September 2024 presbytery meeting.
November 2024 to January 2025: The trial
The Administrative Commission charged the Session and me with contempt for refusing to comply with what we maintain were unlawful orders. The trial opened November 23, 2024, and closed January 11, 2025. The Judicial Commission found the elders guilty and imposed sanctions. We appealed to the General Assembly.
Circling the Drain
The day the trial opened.
Can Justice Be Found in the EPC?
The Color of Compromise Is Cornflower Blue
On “anti-racism” and the EPC.
My Closing Statement
Read to the Judicial Commission, January 11, 2025.
Thou Shalt Not Lie to Appease the Bureaucrats
On the authority of a presbytery.
January and February 2025: The vote and the release
On January 26, 2025, the congregation voted 106 to 13, an 89 percent majority, to leave the EPC. On February 15, the presbytery voted to acknowledge our departure. We then ended our lawsuits and withdrew our complaints, and Beverly Heights became an independent congregation.
…Then Vote for Independence
Clerk of Session Andy Lucas, speaking for the whole Session before the vote.
God Is Preparing His Church for a Great Work
A word to the congregation that January.
The Finale
The Parrhesian Podcast tells the whole story, from the commission’s formation to our release.
Slaying the EPC Leviathan
Tom O’Boyle on how the fight ended, March 2025.
Where we are now
In October 2025, the Session accepted candidate status with Bucer Presbytery of the CREC. On September 20, 2026, the congregation voted to affiliate with the CREC and adopted its constitution into our bylaws. Nine days later, meeting in Nashville, Bucer Presbytery received Beverly Heights into full membership by a unanimous vote. Our confessional standard is the Westminster Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
The “Scary” CREC
A conversation with Douglas Wilson.