Task force recommends partitioning congregation, taking over governance of church and property
By Craig M. Kibler, April 16, 2007
In a strategy taken straight out of “The Louisville Papers,” a Presbytery of Western North Carolina task force is recommending that the presbytery at its April 24 meeting in Montreat partition the congregation of Montreat Presbyterian Church into two parts – “the true church within the PCUSA” and those desiring to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church – and appoint an administrative commission to run it on behalf of “the true church” while, at the same time, taking possession of all the congregation’s property for six months while a “mutually acceptable settlement” is worked out.
Reminding all church officers of their vow “to further the peace, unity and purity of the church,” the task force threatens “to exercise original jurisdiction” over Montreat Presbyterian Church if any member seeking to join the EPC “brings a civil lawsuit against this presbytery.”
On Jan. 21, the congregation of Montreat Presbyterian Church voted 311-27 to request that the presbytery dismiss it to the EPC. That vote came despite concerted efforts by presbytery and General Assembly leaders to keep the congregation in the denomination, including a personal visit from the Rev. Joan Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly.
Another attempt aimed at keeping the congregation in the denomination included a resolution by the Montreat Conference Center board of directors calling for a six-month “season of prayer, study and dialogue” on the issue. The board said that, if the request was rejected, they recommended that the presbytery “decline Montreat Presbyterian Church’s request for dismissal.” That resolution was included in the packet of materials mailed to commissioners to the upcoming meeting of the presbytery.
Another attempt involved the formation of a “steering committee,” shortly after the congregation’s vote, “to discern how to be helpful to the loyal minority of the MPC, the presbytery of WNC, the Montreat Conference Center, the Montreat community and the whole PCUSA.”
A copy of the steering committee’s letter – in which it was stated that “it has been suggested that a blended congregation of MPC members loyal to the PCUSA and members from PCUSA churches in the Montreat area continue the Montreat Presbyterian Church within the PCUSA” – also was included in the packet of materials mailed to commissioners.
In regard to Montreat Presbyterian Church’s property, the task force is recommending that the presbytery “take possession of all the real property now ‘held in trust … for the use and benefit of the PCUSA’ (BO: G-8.0201) by the formerly undivided Montreat Presbyterian Church, to hold and manage such property in trust for the mission of Christ’s Church in this presbytery and the PCUSA.”
Although there is no precedent for it in the Book of Order, the task force recommended that the negotiations include two representatives from the task force, the Mountain Retreat Association (Montreat Conference Center), “the true church,” those seeking to join the EPC and Montreat College.
Calling them “concerned parties,” the task force recommends that it be empowered to hold a series of meetings with these representatives “for up to six months to work out a mutually acceptable settlement concerning the property, which the task force can recommend to the presbytery at its October 2007 meeting.”
In the interim, the task force is recommending “that the use of the land and building in Montreat known as the Henry Building shall be shared by the two congregations (the continuing Montreat Presbyterian Church and the EPC Congregation), initially approximately 10 percent of the space for the continuing Montreat Presbyterian Church and 90 percent for the EPC Congregation, authorizing the chair of the Coordinating Council, the chair of the Committee on Ministry and the General Presbyter together to decide on the actual allocation of such space in the Henry Building and, as seems justifiable to them, to adjust the actual percentages of space shared.”
The task force is comprised of nine members – Jim Cockerham, a pastor from Valdese and chair of the presbytery’s Coordinating Council; Rachel Deal, an elder from Crossnore and a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry; Robert Garrison, a commissioned lay pastor from Micaville and a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry; Martha Guy, an elder from Newland and a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry; Bill Kantonen, an elder from Asheville, a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry and the presbytery’s moderator-elect; Maggie Lauterer, a pastor from Burnsville and the presbytery’s moderator; Don Scofield, a pastor from Rutherfordton and the chair of the presbytery’s committee on ministry; Bill Serjak, a pastor from Sylva and a member of the presbytery’s committee on ministry; and Lamar Williamson, a minister from Montreat.
Craig M. Kibler is the Director of Publications/Executive Editor of The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at cmkibler@layman.org.