Huntsville property ownership case goes to federal court – briefly
By Patrick Jean, March 2, 2007
A Huntsville church’s lawsuit against North Alabama Presbytery is back in state court, after the presbytery’s attorney briefly had the case moved to federal court.
U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins remanded the case to Madison County Circuit Court on Feb. 27. “[T]he court concludes that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” she wrote in her order.
Central Presbyterian filed suit against the presbytery Jan. 29 in the circuit court. The lawsuit asked that the church, not the Presbyterian Church (USA), be declared owner of the congregation’s property.
A hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction was scheduled for Feb. 23. Before the hearing could be held, however, presbytery attorney Robert V. Wood Jr. of Huntsville filed a notice of removal in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, Northeastern Division.
That automatically moved the case to the federal court in Birmingham, where church attorney Rod Steakley of Huntsville traveled to file a motion to either remand the case to state court or grant a temporary restraining order and expedited hearing. Judge Hopkins chose the remanding option.
Steakley said he plans to refile the motion for a preliminary injunction. Circuit Court Judge Jim Smith will set a hearing date.
The Rev. Warner Durnell, executive presbyter of North Alabama Presbytery, deferred to Wood for comment on the case. The attorney declined to comment.
Central Presbyterian’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Randy Jenkins, declined to comment. He has said previously the lawsuit is purely about property rights.
“It is not an act of disaffiliation with the PCUSA. It is not an ecclesiastical action,” he wrote in a Jan. 29 letter sent to all congregation members on behalf of the session and trustees.
But disaffiliation seems to be on the horizon. “[A]t some point in time we may need to candidly discuss our continued relationship with the PCUSA,” states a “Questions & Answers” paper prepared by Central Presbyterian for congregation members.
Jenkins is chairman of the strategy team for the New Wineskins Associations of Churches, a conservative movement that proposes establishment of a transitional, non-geographic presbytery to receive groups of churches into membership in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The property ownership issue between the church and presbytery dates back to at least October 2005. That’s when the presbytery voted down an overture from the Central Presbyterian session to delete the property clause from the PCUSA’s Book of Order.
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org.