Budget includes $50,000 for property ownership lawsuit against Montreat church that left PCUSA
By Patrick Jean, The Layman Online, January 29, 2008
MORGANTON, N.C. – The Presbytery of Western North Carolina has approved a $1.2 million budget for 2008 that includes $50,000 raised for a church property ownership lawsuit against a congregation that left the Presbyterian Church (USA) last year.
Presbytery commissioners, acting on a voice vote, approved the budget and its money for the pending litigation against Montreat Evangelical Presbyterian Church at their stated meeting Jan. 26 at First Presbyterian Church in Morganton, N.C. They authorized the lawsuit at their stated meeting Oct. 26, 2007, and a day later they approved making a national appeal for financial contributions to help defray legal costs.
The Montreat EPC congregation’s request to leave the PCUSA for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church was granted at the presbytery’s stated meeting April 24, 2007. At that meeting, presbytery commissioners also designated the “continuing” Montreat Presbyterian Church as “the true church within the PCUSA;” voted to take possession of the church’s property; and created a task force to study the property issue.
The Montreat EPC congregation was to share the church property with the Montreat PCUSA congregation, but it insisted it owned the property outright under state law.
On Oct. 26, 2007, The Layman Online posted an “open letter to the Presbytery of Western North Carolina” from the Rev. Richard White, pastor of the Montreat EPC congregation. In it, he explained that the Montreat EPC session rejected two proposals concerning the property because neither one acknowledged that his church should have an ongoing presence in Montreat, let alone ownership of the property.
On the same day that the open letter was posted, presbytery commissioners approved the task force’s report. It said a “mutually acceptable settlement” concerning the property could not be reached and recommended that the presbytery “retain competent legal counsel” and “claim for the Presbyterian Church (USA), and especially its mission in this presbytery, its rights in Montreat under the property trust clause in … the Book of Order of the PCUSA (G-8.0201).”
Separate action proposed
Nearly an hour of the presbytery’s meeting Jan. 26 was spent on the budget, with almost all of that time dedicated to debate and action on an amendment to remove the legal monies and act on them separately. John Ellington, a retired minister, proposed that the $50,000 be deleted as both an income item and an expense item from the budget and voted on separately before the budget was voted on as a whole.
“We have already incurred legal expenses of over $12,000,” Arthur H. Burgess, chairman of the presbytery’s budget and finance committee, advised commissioners. “We’re just barely getting into the year. I think it would be presumptuous to remove that, and we don’t think it would be a problem with $50,000.”
Debate on the amendment followed, with an equal number of speakers for and against it.
Warning of ‘major conflagration’
The most detailed argument for the amendment was delivered by Parker T. Williamson, a retired minister and editor emeritus of The Layman Online. He reminded commissioners that the Montreat EPC congregation worships in property owned by Montreat College, “but they also occupy a building that they bought and paid for with the contributions of their congregation.”
“There is an allegation by this presbytery that the presbytery claims and owns that property of this departing congregation,” he said. “The departing congregation has taken no legal action against any of you. None whatsoever. No lawsuit has been filed. No temporary restraining order. No action has been taken by that congregation toward you. They are simply continuing to occupy the property in a building that they paid for with their own contributions. We need to understand that this item called ‘legal expenses’ involves funding to empower this presbytery to sue the Montreat Evangelical Presbyterian Church.”
Williamson urged commissioners not to sue the congregation – especially not as part of a mission fund.
“I hope that the elders who are here today will have to go back to their sessions and report what went on here today,” he said. “If this line item is left in this budget, I hope that the elders here do not go back to their sessions and simply report as a matter of information that we passed a budget for 2008. I hope that you’ll say to your own session, ‘And that budget included money to sue a congregation.'”
Williamson warned that the presbytery stood on the edge of “a major conflagration. … If this presbytery pursues this line of action, includes in its mission budget money to sue other groups of Christians – after all, because they’re not PCUSA doesn’t mean they’re not Christians – if we do this, we’re going to set in motion several activities that are going to hurt this presbytery very deeply.”
“Please understand that the group of Christians that chose to leave us has many friends and supporters across this country,” he said. “A campaign by this presbytery to raise funds to sue one of our churches will simply open the door to a major campaign from the other direction. And so this presbytery will be in the vortex of a national issue involving not just $50,000 – please understand. It’s going to involve hundreds of thousands of dollars. I plead with this presbytery to vote for this amendment that, right here and now, we delete these legal fees from this mission budget.”
Julius Scott, a retired minister whose wife is on the staff of the Montreat EPC church, ran off a list of ecumenical purposes that the Henry Building is being used for by his wife’s church, including a boarding school, children’s church, study groups, committees and Bible school, as well as use by the Boy Scouts, Mothers of Preschoolers and the Montreat Conference Association.
“God is using the work that is going on in that building,” he said. “Lives are being changed through the power of the Holy Spirit. Before you appropriate money to try to take it away, ask, ‘Do you want to eliminate that kind of reach within this area?'”
The Rev. Bill Campbell, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, urged commissioners to drop the legal effort in the interest of peacekeeping.
“If there’s ever been a time someone said, ‘This is a terrible time to consider this,’ this is the time to consider it,” he said. “After this meeting, we may not have a window. We’re going to have a vote here, so it’s a very serious consideration. Let’s all please take this to heart.”
Settlement, not lawsuit?
The Rev. Kevin Frederick, pastor of Waldensian Presbyterian Church in Valdese, spoke against the amendment. He told commissioners that the administrative commission for the Montreat PCUSA church, on which he served, tried to stay out of court and made several overtures to the Montreat EPC church, but was rebuffed.
“Please, first and foremost, we are not pursuing a case for suing that church,” he said. “We are trying to defend our right as a denomination. … What we are trying to do, Mr. Moderator, is simply provide the legal funds to defend ourselves for seeking an out-of-court settlement.”
Thelma Cumby, a commissioner from Burnsville, said she was disappointed that those in Montreat who were allowed to leave the PCUSA have shown no empathy toward those in Montreat who stayed in the denomination, but don’t have a place to call home. The presbytery should see that the original Montreat PCUSA church is protected, she said.
The Rev. Albert G. “Pete” Peery Jr., pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Asheville, reminded commissioners that the presbytery, at the behest of the Montreat EPC pastor, established a policy for churches wanting to leave the PCUSA. Part of that policy, he said, was that the presbytery would avoid appointing administrative commissions for churches seeking to leave the denomination and would make a decision separately about the church’s property.
In the case of the Montreat church, Peery said a committee was appointed to negotiate property separately and the EPC congregation agreed to enter into negotiations as part of the deal for its freedom but, once negotiations began, “we cannot talk about it.” Because that committee has been stonewalled, he said the purpose of going the legal route now is to pursue a settlement.
Jerry Ragan, an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Belmont, said the ground being covered by the speakers was addressed at the presbytery’s October 2007 stated meeting, when legal action and fund-raising was authorized. He called for the vote on the amendment.
Ellington’s amendment was defeated on a standing vote. A voice vote in favor of the overall budget quickly followed.
Marion defense included
The $50,000 legal figure approved by commissioners also covers the presbytery’s defense against a property ownership lawsuit filed July 2, 2007, by First Presbyterian Church in Marion. The national fund-raising appeal that presbytery commissioners approved Oct. 27, 2007, included defraying legal costs in the Marion case, as well as the pending Montreat litigation.
The Marion church is seeking a ruling that it, and not the presbytery or the PCUSA, owns its property. A hearing in the case is scheduled Feb. 11, according to the presbytery’s coordinating council.
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org.