EPC no longer defendant in suit pitting presbytery, synod against Indiana church
By Patrick Jean, Staff Writer The Layman Online, August 21, 2007
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church no longer is a defendant in a property ownership lawsuit brought by the Presbytery of Ohio Valley and the Synod of Lincoln Trails against an Indiana church that left the Presbyterian Church (USA) for the EPC.
The EPC was one of two defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed July 2 in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court in Evansville, Ind. The remaining defendant is Olivet Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Evansville.
On the Web
Ohio Valley Presbytery has a page on its Web site about the lawsuit. The page features links to a news release; letters from the Rev. Lorna Kuyk, executive presbyter, and the Rev. Rob Allen, president of the board of trustees; and the court documents.
Olivet Church’s extension filing and the court order dismissing the EPC from the lawsuit have not yet been included on the page.
Olivet Church does not have a Web site. Meanwhile, Olivet Church filed an extension to respond to the presbytery and synod’s complaint. That was done July 24 with the hope that presbytery commissioners will “self-correct” the lawsuit filing before the church files its response, said Brian P. Williams, an Evansville attorney who represents the defendant and also represented the EPC in the case. The lawsuit was filed without presbytery commissioners’ approval, he said.
The presbytery’s next stated meeting is Aug. 24-25 at First Presbyterian Church in Jasper, Ind. No action regarding the lawsuit is on the docket, but an information session about the lawsuit is scheduled Aug. 24 and the Rev. Lorna Kuyk, executive presbyter, said she will mention the litigation in her “State of the Presbytery” report Aug. 25.
The church has until Aug. 27 to file its response to the lawsuit, Williams said. The original response deadline was July 25, said Judy L. Woods, an Indianapolis attorney who is part of the legal team representing the presbytery and synod.
Dismissal pact breached, lawsuit contends
The presbytery and synod contend in the lawsuit that because Olivet Church assumed sole control over its property and is not using it for the purposes of the PCUSA, it has breached the December 2006 agreement that led to its dismissal to the EPC.
The litigation seeks a declaratory judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and either of two orders. The first order would:
- 1. Declare “that all matters set forth herein above should be decided and resolved according to the Constitution of [the] Presbyterian Church (USA), and that by reason of the defendants’ breach or failure to meet the conditions set forth in the resolution, the Olivet defendants remain subject to the governance of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
- 2. Impose “a constructive trust on the interests in favor of the presbytery, until such time as the matter can finally be resolved in the ecclesiastical courts of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
The second order would:
- 1. Declare “that the defendants have no right, title or interest in the interests, including the property, personalty and accounts and any proceeds therefrom.”
- 2. Impose “a constructive trust on the interests in favor of the presbytery, determining that any interest held by any defendant is one held in trust for the Presbyterian Church (USA), and holding the defendants responsible for rent and any and all damages to and diminution in value of the interests since the Olivet Church’s disassociation from the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
- 3. Grant “quieting title to the property in favor of the presbytery and against the defendants.”
- 4. Require the defendants “to convey unconditionally to the presbytery as trustee for the Presbyterian Church (USA) all of defendants’ rights, titles and interests in the interests.”
- 5. Grant “an order of replevin in favor of the presbytery and against defendants for the personalty.” (A replevin is a legal form or action typically used to recover possession of specific personal property unlawfully withheld from a plaintiff.)
- 6. Require “an accounting of the accounts for … funds received by the defendants before and after Dec. 7, 2006, or relating to, arising from, or which are proceeds of the interest, and awarding all such amounts to the presbytery.”
- 7. Award the plaintiffs “their attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses incurred in connection herewith.”
- 8. Grant the plaintiffs “all other relief at law or in equity to which they are entitled.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Carl A. Heldt, Woods said, but does not yet have a hearing date.
No EPC claim on property
Heldt dismissed the EPC from the lawsuit July 30. His one-page order did not include an explanation for his decision. The denomination had filed a disclaimer of interest in the case.
“As a denomination, the EPC does not have a constitutional or legal claim to local church property,” the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Jeremiah, executive pastor and stated clerk of the EPC, said in an e-mail to The Layman Online. “Our constitution declares that among ‘the rights and privileges that are irrevocably reserved’ to a viable local church is ‘ownership of its own property’ (Book of Government, chapter seven, sections 1 and 4).”
“On behalf of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, I am very grateful that we have been dismissed from the lawsuit filed by the Presbytery of Ohio Valley (PCUSA) against Olivet Evangelical Presbyterian Church,” Jeremiah said. “We were surprised when the EPC was named as a defendant in this lawsuit. Olivet was dismissed by the Ohio Valley Presbytery to the EPC Midwest Presbytery in late 2006.”
Pastor explains church’s stance
The Rev. David Mills, pastor of Olivet Church, has declined to comment since the lawsuit was filed. But in an interview with The Layman Online before the litigation began, he explained why his church left the PCUSA and why his church would not take the presbytery to court.
Mills cited a lack of commitment by the presbytery and the denomination to the authority of Scripture that was cemented by the 217th General Assembly’s approval in June 2006 of the report by the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity that keeps the current ordination standards in the constitution, but allows those who choose not to obey them to declare them to be non-essential. The following month, 116 of the church’s 185 members voted to request that Ohio Valley Presbytery let Olivet Church go to the EPC with its property and finances.
But a presbytery task force recommended that the church not be dismissed with its property. Presbytery commissioners, acting on the task force’s suggestions, voted in December 2006 to dismiss Olivet Church to the EPC, but placed three conditions on the dismissal:
- 1. “That the issue of the disposition of the church and its real property be continued until the August 2007 assembly of POV during which time, the trustees of the POV will lease the building to Olivet for $1 and other considerations, subject to the church maintaining all customary and required insurances and providing for the proper maintenance of the building and property, and timely payment of all debts and obligations.”
- 2. “If a negotiated settlement is not agreed upon and accepted by the above referenced POV assembly, the property may be leased by the congregation at the current market value for such space in Evansville, Ind., as determined by the average of two independent assessments conducted by licensed leasing professionals, for a period not to exceed one additional year.
- 3. “The congregation of Olivet will be responsible for all costs incurred by POV for the process of negotiating and documenting this transaction.”
Mills disagreed with the presbytery over when the $1-lease plan was supposed to go into effect. He said he felt the wording suggested continuing disposition of the church and its property until August 2007, but the presbytery wanted the church to sign the lease plan right away.
The Olivet Church session recommended that the church “respectfully decline” to sign the lease plan, believing God has entrusted stewardship of the property to the church rather than to the PCUSA, Mills said.
He said his congregation would not file litigation for a declaratory judgment because it would force the presbytery to make its case in the civil-court system.
“We just feel that it would be ironic to leave the denomination because we felt that they weren’t following any sort of Scripture and then disobey Scripture by taking our brothers to court,” said Mills, who has been pastor of Olivet Church for 14 years.