Fort Myers church requests affiliation switch

Story was written on deadline for the front of the Metro section the next day.

Members of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers have agreed to ask for dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination.

A Sunday morning vote with a 76 percent majority declared that church members want to realign with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church denomination.

The governing Peace River Presbytery, which is made up of 38 churches stretching from Naples to Sarasota and oversees the Covenant, will meet with church members today to discuss the results of the vote and set up a meeting date to approve or deny the dismissal. If approved, Covenant members will petition to join the EPC.

"We are ecstatic at the vote ... and that so many people showed up for it," said Jake Faasse, the church clerk just hours after the vote was tallied. "What's important to us is to follow what keeps us faithful in what we believe."

The move, Faasse said, is one that falls in line with what the church believes and going into another denomination is their best option.

"We have been going through this for one year and now we have done everything the presbytery's guidelines wanted," Faasse said about guidelines the Peace River Presbytery has created after hearing of the churches plans to change. "More than 1,000 people showed up to vote and we got the quorum we needed."

The Covenant Presbyterian Church on McGregor Boulevard has 1,300 members and church officials held the vote on Super Bowl Sunday because it's the "highest attended single Sunday other than the traditional Christmas or Easter," Faasse said.

Faasse expects the decision from to be made sometime in May.

Senior Pastor the Rev. Bill Stephens and other members of the church were unavailable for comment Sunday.