Letter from the session of Highland Park Presbyterian Church
Dear HPPC Family,
After much deliberation and prayer, last night HPPC’s elders, trustees and pastors unanimously approved the settlement agreement previously approved by Grace Presbytery over the ongoing property litigation. This resolves once and for all that the congregation of Highland Park Presbyterian Church owns and controls the assets of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, free and clear of any claims by the PC(USA). This result achieves HPPC’s goal in the litigation of clarifying its exclusive ownership and control of its property.
In the settlement, HPPC has agreed to pay Grace Presbytery $7.8 million, or 11% of the fair market value of the approximately $70 million of assets that were at issue in the litigation. While the one-time cost of settling this lawsuit is significant, the Session believes that bringing resolution to a 30-year unanswered question about the control of HPPC’s property is worth even more in terms of our mission and witness to the community and the world. Additionally, this 11% figure is commensurate with the 11% of the congregation that voted during the discernment process to remain in the PC(USA).
Over the past year, HPPC has been opening the door to a brand new era:
- Last October, we enthusiastically entered ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, joining a growing new denomination with other mission-centered congregations.
- In April, we unanimously called the Rev. Bryan Dunagan to be HPPC’s 7th Senior Pastor. The energy and enthusiasm generated by the arrival of Bryan and his family into our church community has been truly invigorating.
- Our giving for 2013-14, which ended in August, was $1.2 million more than last year. Thank you for your confidence and trust during this season of transition.
- The settlement of the property litigation allows HPPC to focus its creativity and energy on transforming lives through gospel-centered ministry.
The true church of Christ has never been a building or an institution, but a community of people centered in Jesus and sent into mission. At the same time, the campus that God has given us at 3821 University Blvd. is a great training ground and place of transformation in our ongoing ministry as a beacon of hope in Dallas. By being good stewards of the property that Christ has entrusted to us, we honor the legacy begun by the HPPC family in 1926 and affirm our calling to Make Disciples of Jesus Christ who make a Difference in the World for the Glory of God.
In Christ,
The Session at Highland Park Presbyterian Church
Related article from the Dallas News: Highland Park Presbyterian Church reaches property litigation settlement
18 Comments. Leave new
The only silver lining in all of this for congregations is that the behavior of Episcopalian dioceses and presbyteries during this era of realignment sounds the death knell of this kind of “connectionalism.” Never again will Christians build buildings owned by some denomination.
I am astounded by this and crushed.
Texas state law was on the side of HPPC. HPPC would have prevailed in court. In so doing, it would have killed the trust clause in Texas. By caving and paying to Grace money it has no right to, HPPC allows Grace to continue to “own” the other 140 congregations in that presbytery.
Absolutely crushing.
Don, I tend to agree. Everything I’ve read about trust law jurisprudence in Texas courts suggests that HPPC could have left with its property without paying anything if it had stayed the course in litigation. It is my understanding that the Episcopalian denomination has lost its court cases with departing congregations in Texas. HPPC believes that settling avoids damage to Christian witness in Dallas. Off setting that concern is the question of whether this settlement is good stewardship of the Lord’s money by HPPC. It’s a tough call. The only thing that is completely certain is that the PC(USA) will continue shrinking to the far left wing fringe of Presbyterianism where it will have virtually zero influence for the larger cause of Christ.
Unfortunately Highland Park agreed to give Grace Presbytery $7.8 million.
It could be said that the PCUSA repeatedly violates the Ten Commandments by stealing from churches.
FPC Houston would have to pay 33% of the value of their church property, to reflect the fact that 1/3 of their church didn’t want to leave. Seems fair, unless you want to just ignore the rights of anyone who disagrees with you.
James H, you can say the presbytery didn’t build the church, but the 1/3 of the congregation who voted to stay can certainly say they contributed toward building the church within the PCUSA.
Scott,
a 1/3, where you on mars when they had that vote, they lost by 36 votes of all those that SHOWED up to vote, maybe you don’t understand the difference, then again math is not your strong point
Spiritually advanced teaching like that is what draws me back to The Layman.
James, roughly 2/3 of FPC voted to leave, roughly 1/3 voted to stay. The 2/3 who voted to leave was 34 votes short of the actual 2/3 required. Non voters could have gone either way – you don’t know that everyone who didn’t show up to vote wanted to leave. You make it sound like everyone but 34 people wanted to leave.
And, Scott you have yet to learn to learn anything from it
Granted, I have low expectations of you, but even with that your response made no sense.
Hmmm … 34 people voted against leaving. Only 34 people felt strongly enough to show up to vote against leaving. Yet you say that there was more than 1/3 of the congregation who were opposed to leaving.
Well, obviously they weren’t that strongly opposed, or else they would have been at the meeting.
What’s the old secular voting refrain: “If you didn’t vote, you can’t complain” !!
Severely disingenuous or just dense?
I think the 34 votes refers to the margin by which First Presbyterian Houston fell short of a 2/3 majority to leave the denomination. Something like 1,100 voted to go and 580 voted to stay (not the exact figures).
I hesitate to engage in a conversation between folks like Scott and James H who are intemperate and unable to sustain a civilized tone. However, the future of FPC Houston is crystal clear and will follow the same course as Highland Park. In the 1990’s Highland Park held their first vote on leaving the PC(USA). The much beloved senior pastor announced that if the congregation voted to leave, he would resign. That split the “leave” vote between those who wanted to leave under any circumstances and those who wanted to leave but voted to stay so as not to lose their pastor. The leave vote was 55%, a majority but short of the presbytery’s threshold for allowing departure. Since then of course the PC(USA) has continued its inexorable drift to the far left wing of Presbyterianism so HPPC’s vote to leave this year was an overwhelming majority. The same thing will happen at FPC Houston. The presbytery fielded a very capable team to lobby FPC Houston to stay and that team did an excellent job, prevailing on the vote by a razor thin margin. But nothing will reverse the PC(USA)’s gradual embrace of universalism, Unitarianism and syncretism and it’s just a matter of time before FPC Houston votes again to leave by a large majority.
FPC Houston will hopefully take their case all the way through the courts. As you know, FPC Houston has not broken away from PCUSA so there is not need to pay some percentage based on those who voted to not leave. FPC Houston is just trying to put this issue (trust clause) to bed after fighting with the PCUSA over it for the past 30 years. FPC Houston has a better case that HPPC had, as FPC has never taken a cent from the presbytery for property purchases.
Regarding the Jim’s comment that the presbytery did a good job of lobbying to kill the FPC vote. I agree they did a very good job – it was very non-God honoring, but it was effective. That and their campaign to pull in all the little old ladies and men who had not darkened the door for years on the morning of the vote, pushed the “stay” over the top.
Now we have a church where the vast majority (and the really vast majority of those funding the church!) want to leave, but they’re being held hostage by the trust clause.
I agree with your comment. There is no reason for FPC to drop its case because it is not trying to leave right now, it just wants the courts to determine who owns the property based on Texas law. If the courts rule in FPC’s favor, they can then leave without paying the presbytery anything.
I am very surprised that HPPC paid the presbytery so much since legally it appears state law favors the local congregation
Yes, you’re right Mark. The pattern on these cases around the country is that in states where the courts won’t recognize the trust clause, congregations are leaving the PC(USA) with little or no payment to presbyteries. Colonial Presbyterian, a large affluent church in Kansas City with two valuable campuses (one on the Missouri side of Kansas City, the other on the Kansas side) left without paying a dime because courts in those two states don’t recognize the trust clause as valid. In states like California where the courts enforce the trust clause, presbyteries have the leverage to exact large payments from churches, hence the $8.89 million the San Francisco presbytery extracted from Menlo Park. The puzzling thing about Highland Park’s settlement is that denominations have been losing these cases in Texas so it appears that HPPC could have left without paying anything if they had let the litigation play out. But nothing is certain in litigation and maybe HPPC’s attorneys advised that HPPC was better off settling rather than suffer an unexpected defeat in court at which point the presbytery would have the leverage to exact an even larger payment.