Presbytery pledges ‘grace and
peace’ but sues church and trustees
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, September 23, 2008
MONTREAT, N.C. – “Grace and Peace!” wrote officials of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina at the end of a memorandum announcing that they had filed a lawsuit against Montreat Evangelical Presbyterian Church (MEPC) including individual lawsuits against the congregation’s three trustees.
The presbytery’s language against trustees Andy Andrews, Jessie Barker and Natalie Schermerhorn was particularly harsh. It charged them with “breach of fiduciary duty” and “actual or constructive fraud and constructive trust/unjust enrichment.” The document called for the trustees to be “held personally liable for damages.”
Asked why the presbytery targeted individuals, the Rev. Bobbie White, executive presbyter, declined to comment, telling The Layman “if you want to discuss anything in the lawsuit, you’ll need to talk to our attorneys.” The Rev. James Aydelotte, stated clerk, said a summary statement will be issued but he declined to make additional comment to the press. In their memorandum, White and Aydelotte said the MEPC congregation was being sued because of its “unwillingness to discuss any disposition of the property.”
Nothing could be farther from the truth, says the congregation’s minister Richard White. In an open letter dated October 10, 2007, White documented four meetings in which he and his session representatives participated in property discussions with presbytery leaders. The problem, said White, was that presbytery representatives framed these meetings “by the presbytery’s premise that the PWNC [Presbytery of Western North Carolina] owned our building and we simply held it in trust for them. … We stated clearly to the group that we believed we owned our building and in that light we were very willing to discuss its use.”
‘Continuing the tradition’
After the MEPC congregation voted 311-27 to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA), presbytery leaders attempted to create a “continuing” PCUSA church in Montreat.
Crafting street signs displaying the official denominational seal and the phrase “continuing the tradition,” a handful of former church members, retired PCUSA ministers living in the area and a few families from the nearby Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, started holding worship services in Montreat’s Assembly Inn. By virtue of their association with the PCUSA, the presbytery says this group is the true “Montreat Presbyterian Church” and can therefore confiscate property owned by the MEPC congregation.
The MEPC congregation says it has no objection to the formation of the new “continuing” church and welcomes it to use a portion of its building, just as it welcomes other Christian groups in the valley. But on the question of title, MEPC is firm: “We have been very clear that we are operating out of a different premise, that we own our building, not the presbytery, and in that light we are willing to discuss others using it,” said White.
During one of the MEPC’s ill-fated meetings with PCUSA loyalists, presbytery representatives proposed that the presbytery take possession of the building and rent it to the MEPC church for a period of up to two years. Then the presbytery would sell the building and divide the proceeds among Presbyterians in Montreat.
Banishing the competition
“Our session rejected this proposal and did not counter with anything because it felt that a more fundamental question was not being addressed – can there be two churches in Montreat?” said White. “There was never any consensus from the working group on this, and strong voices kept repeating that the only solution was that our church leave Montreat.”
The 470-member MEPC congregation conducts a vital ministry in the Montreat valley with two well attended worship services (average attendance 650) on Sunday mornings and numerous activities during the week. The congregation added 100 members in 2007 in spite of the threatened lawsuit by the presbytery. Included in its $1,170,245 budget is support for 18 missionaries, several of whom began their ministry while members of the congregation. The congregation serves as parent church to a new “iSight” EPC church in the town of Black Mountain and it is in the process of organizing a second church in the area.
Seventy-three children are enrolled in MEPC’s weekday morning school, with 20 more on the waiting list. More than 100 children attend Sunday School and 110 participate in Sunday evening worship services. Twenty-five mothers and their babies participate in a monthly program. Cub Scout dens and Boy Scout troops meet at the church and store their equipment there. MEPC makes its building available for home school meetings throughout the year, Mountain Retreat Association summer conferences and classroom space for Montreat College.
“We prayed, pledged, sacrificed and gave to build the Henry Building,” said White, “and we did so without any presbytery assistance. This building was dedicated to the Lord for the purpose of teaching the next generation the ways of the Lord…. To give this building away would be to forfeit our present ministry to children, youth and the unchurched that the Lord has given us in this place. The session has tried to discern whether the Lord is calling us out of Montreat. Our sense is that He is not at this time asking us to step away from the ministries and tools he has given us to do this work.”
The MEPC congregation believes that there is room in the Montreat valley for both congregations, and it is seeking ways in which it can “be a blessing” to the “continuing” PCUSA group. “While we may no longer be a part of the PCUSA some of our closest brothers and sisters are, and the session is looking for ways to encourage them,” said White. MEPC continues to send support for PCUSA missionaries ($30,000 in 2007). White said he is praying “that the two churches in Montreat can move forward with healing and blessing.”
“We are not enemies,” said White in his October 2007 open letter.
Now, nine months later, his church has been slapped with a lawsuit. During worship services on the Sunday after the congregation learned it was being sued, prayers were offered, asking the Lord to help the session be a good steward of the property while “being a blessing” to those who seek to confiscate it.
After the benediction, an elder told The Layman, “This is the Lord’s property; not ours. So we hold it lightly. We’ll defend it as a matter of stewardship, but if we lose, we know the Lord will show us another way.”
“This is a huge distraction,” said White. “Whether we keep or lose our building, our ministry is not about buildings. It is about Jesus Christ. I’m asking our friends to pray that the Lord will help us stay focused on Him as we move through this crisis.”
The Rev. Dr. Jeff Jeremiah, stated clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, told The Layman that he was “heartbroken” over the news. He said he is encouraging congregations that love the Lord to stand with their Montreat brothers and sisters in their time of trial. “Any legal, financial, emotional, and most importantly, spiritual support that can be offered to Montreat will certainly honor our Lord Jesus Christ and benefit this courageous congregation and its spiritual leaders,” he said.