Members of Highland Park Presbyterian Church (HPPC) in Dallas, Texas will vote Oct. 27 on whether it should leave its present denomination and join a new Presbyterian family.
The vote follows a resolution, unanimously approved by the congregation’s 49-member session, stating that it “believes God has called HPPC to terminate its voluntary affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA), and seek affiliation with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.”
“We are not walking away from our Presbyterian values; we are preserving them,” said Rev. Joe Rightmyer, interim senior pastor of HPPC, in a press release posted on the church’s web site.
“This decision by our church leadership was not taken lightly. We have watched as the national denomination has turned away from some of the fundamental values that have been central to our local congregation for the last 90 years. We have reached the point that the changes imposed by the PCUSA have become a distraction that hinders the mission of our church,” he continued.
Between now and the scheduled vote, a series of meetings will be held to inform church members about the session’s actions and its reasons for doing so, which include:
- the PCUSA’s lack of core theological beliefs;
- disagreement over the authority of Scripture and salvation through Jesus Christ alone;
- and the impact of PCUSA governance policy and practices on the life of HPPC, particularly on the selection process for new pastors.
Lawsuit filed
Just last week, the session of HPPC voted to support a civil lawsuit filed by the church’s Board of Trustees against Grace Presbytery.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 10 in Dallas County District Court, seeks not only to protect church property from the presbytery, but also asks the court to declare that the church itself owns and controls all of its property, not the PCUSA.
In a Sept. 12 letter to the congregation, the session wrote that it “believes that the trustees made a wise decision in commencing the court action. The historic opportunity to clear the property of HPPC cannot be allowed to slip away. The court action frees the congregation from the distraction of the property and allows it to focus on other critical issues it must consider in deciding its future relationship with the PCUSA.”
Grace Presbytery responded on Sept. 19 by having the case moved to federal court. A statement on the presbytery web site stated that “Grace Presbytery is greatly disappointed over HPPC’s actions in taking a church dispute into the civil courts, but is confident that based on the evidence and the law, the presbytery will prevail in the federal litigation. Grace Presbytery remains hopeful, however, that reasonable members of the HPPC congregation will want to avoid protracted litigation and instead will come forward to meet and resolve the issues.”
The Highland Park session has voted to appoint a negotiating team to work with the presbytery in hope of working out an “amicable” resolution to the lawsuit.
Latest legal moves
A temporary restraining order against the presbytery was extended on Sept. 24 by U.S. District Court Judge Jane J. Boyle, who found that “HPPC demonstrated good cause to extend the TRO,” according to the church’s press release.”
Boyle also granted the church’s request to “expedited consideration” of its request to move the lawsuit back to state court. An Oct. 7 hearing was scheduled.
In the 2011 comparative statistics, Highland Park was listed as the fourth largest church in the denomination with 4,854 members. The court filing estimates the value of the real property owned by Highland Park Presbyterian Church to be $30 million.
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It’s well known that courts can be unpredictable, even incomprehensible, in their reasoning and rulings. So I’m far from confident that HPPC will prevail in court, though I pray that it will.
If HPPC does prevail, it will be a severe blow to Grace Presbytery. It’s not just that Grace will lose 1/8 of its total church membership with HPPC’s departure; it’s the legal precedent that will be set. Other congregations, currently constrained by their fear of losing their property or having to pay a large exit ransom to Grace, may be freed to leave the PCUSA with impunity. Nothing less than Grace Presbytery’s continuance as a going concern may be at stake, and Grace officials know it. Which is why I expect Grace to stop at virtually nothing to gain control of HPPC’s property, using all legal means – and not necessarily ethical ones – to do so. Despite the name of the presbytery, there will be nothing gracious about this process.
IT IS TIME THAT THE CHARADE IS OVER WITH THE PCUSA.LET US MARCH ON AND UPWARD!
Hiow long will Bible Believing men and women allow themselves to be duped with the lack of Scriptural values that the PCUSA puts on the table?
The Presbytery”s care is only about propetry and not redeemong lost souls.
I have been through this fight on Washington D.C. with the Espicosal church.
May we stand for the Victory of Christ and how the Holy Spirit guides us into all TRUTH!
When this is a proposed evacuation from the church of Ruth Bell … This cannot be more plain and convincing!
Coverage from the Dallas Morning News: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/park-cities/headlines/20130925-highland-park-presbyterian-sues-regional-church-authorities-to-maintain-control-of-property.ece
Anyone else think it is funny that the two top reasons that Highland Park wants to leave the PCUSA include:
1) the PCUSA’s lack of core theological beliefs;
and
2) disagreement over the authority of Scripture and salvation through Jesus Christ alone?
If they don’t have core theological beliefs, how can you disagree with them about the authority of Scripture and salvation through Jesus Christ alone?
I would think that scripture and salvation are core theological issues, right? Sounds like a church that is very rich and influential deciding that it doesn’t need the denomination that gave it birth and is breaking Paul’s command of unity in favor of selfish interests, rather than standing firm in their beliefs in order to effect change.
The church stated why its leaving. Why is that wrong? PCUSA has declared that there may be other means to salvation, among other things that aren’t scripturally sound. Yes, this may be a wealthy church, but I assure you that this congregation is a very mission oriented, conservative scripture based one.
This church has stayed in the PCUSA for many years hoping to make a difference, but at some point you have to realize its not going to change for the better. Plus PCUSA isn’t going to let the church choose their pastor, they will bar them from picking a conservative one.
As a former member of HPPC, the church was independent until the election under Clayton Bell. Roughly one third abstained, one third voted to join PCUSA and one third voted to stay independent. For reasons unknown to me, Dr. Clayton Bell decided that the third that abstained would join with the third that voted to join PCUSA.
Civil war broke out, the church split apart, some members stayed, some members joined other churches,
some formed a new church and a few left the Presbyterian Church forever. Perhaps the time we have been waiting for has arrived.
Previously, I made the statement that there would be nothing gracious about Grace Presbytery’s dealings with HPPC. I’ve been reading the legal back-and-forth between HPPC and Grace (all the court papers are on HPPC’s web site), and it appears my prediction is bearing out. After Grace officials initially said they were “shocked and saddened”, they have now added “stunned” to the list of emotions they are feeling. In its most recent court filing, Grace assured the court that there’s absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever for HPPC to have sought a temporary restraining order preventing Grace from moving to control HPPC’s property; yet Grace wanted the court to deny HPPC’s request to extend the TRO. (The court did extend it). Why is Grace trying to remove the protection the court granted HPPC? What will Grace do if the protection is removed?
In the end, someone loses big. Either Grace loses the control it has over its congregations, as the trust clause is effectively rendered moot in Texas; or Highland Park members – some of them life-long members, for decades – lose control of the property they bought, paid for, and have maintained since the 1920s. And while the members of HPPC will be paying for their legal bills, Grace’s legal expenses will be paid by the members of the presbytery’s 160 congregations – members who may not even be aware of what’s going on, and who thought their money was going to things like spreading the Good News or feeding and clothing the poor. I’ll say it once more: There is nothing gracious about this. Nothing.