Kirk’s congregation votes
to re-buy its own property
By John H. Adams, The Layman, October 20, 2008
After two years of litigation, the congregation of Kirk of the Hills Evangelical Presbyterian Church voted narrowly Sunday to pull out of court and go to the bank for a $1.75 million loan to “buy” back its property from the Presbytery of Eastern Oklahoma.
The vote of the members was 508-483 to end the legal fight. The $1.75 million must be paid to the presbytery by Nov. 15.
The settlement would be the largest paid by any Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation since 2000, when the current exodus began, to gain a clear title to property. Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Va., paid the Presbytery of the Peaks $1.3 million in 2003 to leave the PCUSA with its property.
Once the Kirk settles its account with the presbytery, the case will conclude, barring any unexpected intervention, such as legal action by the Synod of the Sun should it oppose the presbytery’s settlement offer.
In approving the settlement, the congregation voted against the session’s 8-2 recommendation to continue the case. The session had previously recommended approving the settlement, but changed its recommendation after District Judge Jefferson Sellers altered his decision. The judge first issued a ruling that the presbytery owned the property and the Kirk must buy it or face eviction, even if it appealed the ruling.
However, after hearing arguments from both sides about the language of his decision, Sellers decided to change his ruling from a “judgment” to an “interlocutory adjudication,” which is not a final judgment and is not appealable. The new ruling would have allowed the Kirk and the presbytery to continue presenting arguments until Sellers decided to issue a final judgment.
In a statement to the congregation, the session said. “Everyone agrees that the Kirk’s ability to win the lawsuit increases significantly at the Supreme Court level because they have the authority to change how the state of Oklahoma handles church property claims and most states have moved to a ‘neutral principles’ method for handling church property disputes since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling of 1979.”
Co-pastor Tom Gray, who did not have a vote at the congregational meeting, told the Tulsa World that he was satisfied with the vote, although he would have voted to continue with the lawsuit rather than paying for the property again. Nonetheless, he added, “This is a wonderful chance for us to move on.”
The Kirk’s legal battle with the presbytery was closely followed by dozens of congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA) that are also involved in litigation with their presbyteries or are considering steps to leave the denomination with their property. Many hoped the case would be carried to the U.S. Supreme Court and that the nation’s highest court would issue a clear ruling affirming settling church property disputes on neutral principles.
The Presbytery of Eastern Oklahoma based its legal strategy on a 1869 Supreme Court decision that awarded church property on the basis of hierarchical claims by the church’s national governing body, the General Assembly. In later cases, PCUSA lawyers have argued that the denomination is hierarchical, like the Roman Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church (USA), and that its property trust law legitimizes the denomination’s claim to local church property.