Calif. church wins title
to its property, dismissal
By John H. Adams, The Layman, Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009
After a year of negotiations, the Presbytery of Sacramento gave Sierra Presbyterian Church a quitclaim title to its property this week and dismissed the congregation to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
“I’m sitting in my office today thinking about all of this,” said Sierra’s pastor, the Rev. Scott Dickson. “Frankly, I’m stunned.”
Sierra gave the presbytery a $75,000 “love gift” as its part of the settlement. For the most part, Dickson said, the negotiations were demanding but not acrimonious. The agreement was essentially reached in September, but the presbytery set a waiting period before it could be finalized.
Dickson said the congregation did not consider trying to win its property through litigation in a civil court. “My hope,” he said, “was to stay out of the courts and try to do things in a Christ-like way.”
The congregation was almost unanimous (97.3 percent) in approving a request to be dismissed to the New Wineskins Transitional Presbytery of the Evangelical Church.
Dickson said the congregation’s confidence in the Presbyterian Church (USA) declined because of the dilution of Biblical authority and faithfulness. The recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity – in effect, allowing ordaining bodies to decide whether they will ordain men and women who are sexually active outside of marriage – were “the last straw,” he said.
He is eager to move ahead. “We’re going through a new spurt of growth,” he said. “People came and joined us [saying], ‘because you’re willing to take a stand.’”
The congregation has historically been conservative and evangelical. At the end of 2007, according to PCUSA data, Sierra’s membership was 497 with a Sunday school enrollment of 580, an indication of the effectiveness of the church’s teaching ministry. Its per-member giving for the 2007 budget year was $2,148, more than double the denomination’s average.