The Presbytery of Twin Cities Area (PTCA) will appeal the decision of the Minnesota Court of Appeals in favor of Prairie Community Church of Twin Cities (formerly known as Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church), fearing it “turns [the Presbyterian Church (USA)] into a congregational church, where each congregation has the freedom to pick and choose what it will and will not accept regarding church organization, government, and doctrine.”
The Court of Appeals’ April 24 decision upheld the March 24, 2016 ruling by the Fourth Judicial District Court, which concluded that the Prairie Community Church of Twin Cities “owns the disputed property and that the disputed property is not held in trust for the PCUSA, and the PTCA and PCUSA have no legal interest in the disputed property.”
In its report to the presbytery, the PTCA’s Administrative Commission (AC) called the court’s decision “deeply disappointing, and we’re concerned about the impact it may have on our Minnesota congregations, our presbytery as a whole, our neighboring presbyteries in Minnesota, and the wider church. … We believe the decision of the Minnesota Court of Appeals potentially jeopardizes our presbytery’s authority to make decisions in the future regarding congregations who seek to leave. Additionally, we believe the decision may also place in jeopardy our foundational understanding that the Book of Order, in its entirety, applies to all members of the PCUSA.”
Therefore, the AC reported that it had “decided unanimously to direct our attorney to prepare and file a Petition for Review of this decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court.”
Saying it had weighed both the financial and human costs of appealing the decision, the AC argued that if the ruling wasn’t challenged and reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court:
“any Minnesota congregation in our presbytery, as well as Minnesota congregations in neighboring presbyteries, may believe they have tacit permission to follow EPPC’s lead, modify their corporate documents, and unilaterally depart the denomination without obtaining dismissal from the presbytery under the Book of Order.
“Further, we’re concerned that other provisions of the Book of Order may be ignored or violated, and that the courts will not respect or enforce a subsequent decision by the presbytery to impose order or assume original jurisdiction of a congregation.”
The AC also reported that its legal team had agreed to represent the presbytery at a significant discount, along with a cap on the total cost – the same arrangement it had for its appeal of the District Court ruling to the Court of Appeals.
This, they said, “will provide substantial savings. Even so, the costs could still be significant if the Minnesota Supreme Court grants the Petition for Review.”
A Brief History of Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church (EPPC)
Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church (EPPC), began in 1854, when it began to worship in building owned by a church member. Throughout the years, it has been affiliated with at least five Presbyterian denominations, and has paid for its property through member gifts, tithes and offerings.
EPPC was a member of the United Presbyterian Church in the USA, and became a member of the PCUSA in 1983, when the UPCUSA merged with the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
The congregation changed its name to Prairie Community Church in October 2010, and two years later, it entered into the gracious dismissal process with the presbytery. When settlement negotiations failed, the session voted unanimously to disaffiliate from the PCUSA on June 2, 2014. The church voted that same month to affiliate with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
The Presbytery of Twin Cities Area voted to assume original jurisdiction of the church session on Sept. 9, 2014, and when the church refused to recognize the authority of the presbytery, the PCTA filed a civil lawsuit.
The Decision
The Court of Appeals ruled that the District Court was correct when it applied neutral principles of law to the case. Under neutral principles, the court bases its decision in neutral, secular principles, looking at official documents such as property deeds and state statutes.
The court’s decision stated that while the church had created an express trust when it modified its articles of incorporation in 1999, it had also retained the right to modify the documents by a majority vote of the active church members at a properly called congregational meeting.
So, in 2010, when the church voted to remove all references to the trust and the PCUSA from its Articles of Incorporation, “it was within its rights.”
“Thus, EPPC retained the power to revoke the trust and properly revoked the trust by removing all trust language in 2010,” it read.
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“Further, we’re concerned that other provisions of the Book of Order may be ignored or violated, and that the courts will not respect or enforce a subsequent decision by the presbytery to impose order or assume original jurisdiction of a congregation.”
This presbytery is all about the money, just ask those who have left. As far as the Book of Order that’s their Bible, the reason they are worried is because this means any Bible believing church can leave without paying ransom. As usual you can leave the pcusa as long as you leave the door keys and bank account numbers.
Follow the money, because the theology of the PCUSA is too muddle to understand. The fact is that the PCUSA weaponized property, using it and its corrupt corporate practices to violate congregations. And why do they want money so badly? Because membership is rapidly decreasing, individual congregations are leaving or dying (see how many congregations have <100 members), and the denominational bureaucracy is threatened. They are leveraging the assets of departing congregations to create an endowment for a ghost. And I am not referring to the Holy Spirit.
Oh, that’s rich! The presbytery is concerned that some congregations will ignore other provisions of the Book of Order? Congregations, whole presbyteries and even the General Assembly have been ignoring other unpopular provisions of the Book of Order for decades, twisting plain language into unrecognizable interpretations as they please. Twin Cities Presbytery itself has been known to play fast and loose with previous ordination standards.
A hallmark of corporate behaviors in religious cults is the stoking of fear, paranoia, and general chaos, all in efforts to either control, manipulate or otherwise intimidate its members into what they would define as acceptable behaviors. Unfortunately for the PCUSA and its Presbyteries, their attempts at such occur in suburban America, vice the isolated jungles of Guyana, where things like the internet exists and people still retain some form of civil liberties.
When the PCUSA decided to “weaponize” the Property in Trust clause as an offensive weapon it forget the 1st rule of bomb making. Bombs by their nature tend to be very unstable and are very agnostic in action. It is just as likely to blow up in the face of its maker, than inflict harm on its intended targets. For the Presbytery in question and their PCUSA pay masters, bombs do go off when least expected. It was only a matter of time.