Church property dispute runs counter to Beulah land
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 18, 2005
Hephzibah is the Hebrew word for “my delight is in her,” which is used in Isaiah 62 to describe God’s marriage-like restoration of his people in Jerusalem after the Babylon exile.
Isaiah 62:4 declares, “But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah,” a theme that prompted the popular hymn and its refrain:
- I’m living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky.
I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.
O yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.
But the situation involving Hephzibah Presbyterian Church and the Presbytery of Western North Carolina is anything but a cloudless sky, a perpetual fountain and a feast of manna.
While Isaiah 62 is framed in the language of a marriage, the Hephzibah congregation and the presbytery are going through just the opposite – a nasty divorce.
The next court step is the Supreme Court of North Carolina, which may make the ultimate decision. It’s on the docket sheet as an appeal from a state court ruling in Hephzibah Presbyterian Church, Inc., and the Presbytery of Western North Carolina v. Hephzibah Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Bessemer City, N.C.
In 2002, the congregation of Hephzibah Presbyterian Church voted its way out of the Presbyterian Church (USA) over a bitter disagreement with the denomination’s direction – particularly the continued consideration of whether to ordain homosexuals and the failure to enforce the constitution that forbids their ordination.
Knowing that the PCUSA Constitution says congregations hold their property in trust for the denomination, Hephzibah adopted a new name – Hephzibah Evangelical Church – and filed a new deed, conveying the property to the evangelical congregation.
The presbytery filed suit, asking a lower state court to uphold Presbyterian canon law that says congregations hold their property in trust for the denomination and that they cannot leave the PCUSA with their property without approval of the presbytery.
Superior Court Judge Jesse B. Caldwell issued a Solomonic ruling. He temporarily divided the use of the church building. Hephzibah Evangelical Church was allowed to use it from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. for Sunday school and worship on Sundays and the PCUSA’s Hephzibah Presbyterian Church would use it for 11 a.m. Sunday worship and other times during the week.
The split was 47 in the evangelical congregation and three who didn’t want to leave the PCUSA. The presbytery dispatched one of its staff members, Pam Daniel, to preach to the remnant, but hardly anyone showed up, even though the presbytery tried to drum up a crowd for the 11 a.m. service.
In a Presbytery in Brief report posted on the presbytery’s Web site on April 23, 2002, the presbytery thanked “Gastonia First, Olney, Waldensian and New Hope, Gastonia [PCUSA congregations] for ‘loaning’ members to the Hephzibah congregation” to boost attendance. But the 11 a.m. services were short-lived. Even so, the evangelical congregation was limited to its 8:30-10:30 a.m. allocation of time. Furthermore, members of the evangelical church were warned that loitering past their assigned time would be tantamount to trespassing.
When cold weather arrived, members of the congregation asked the presbytery for permission to send someone to the church early to turn on the heat. Their request was denied.
Web postings by the presbytery, including the Prayer Calendar for November and December, 2002, appeal for an end to the contentiousness. “Please pray that the whole Hephzibah church family may experience a renewed peace, love and mercy of God. May God deliver us from divisiveness, error and pride,” the prayer calendar says. “We ask that the Presbytery pray for our minister, commission and all of the leaders of the church that we may be one in faith and service. Pray for Pam Daniel, pastor.”
But the dissenting congregation’s members, who have scheduled a meeting Sunday night to talk further about the situation, are still on edge. They complain that the presbytery has already sold the congregation’s four-bedroom manse and that it is letting the church building fall into disrepair, including a leaky roof.
At one point, they did offer to pay the presbytery $69,000 for the church property, but the presbytery said it would not settle for less than $105,000.
Meanwhile, as the case moves toward a hearing before the North Carolina Supreme Court, there are scars on both sides. The latest update on the court’s tracking record was Dec. 9, 2004. At that time, no briefs had been filed by either side.