Court rules United Church of Canada deviates from doctrinal standards
The Presbyterian Layman, November 23, 1998
A recent Bermuda court decision could open the doors for hundreds of conservative United Church congregations in Canada to quit the denomination and take their buildings with them.
The Supreme Court of Bermuda has ruled that a small Methodist church can leave the United Church of Canada (UCC) and take its $2 million property since the “current doctrinal standards of the UCC of Canada [are] at variance with the doctrines of the 25 Articles of Faith of John Wesley.”
The case pitted Grace Methodist Church in Hamilton, a small, black congregation, against the Synod of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Bermuda, which is governed by the Maritime Conference of the UCC. The UCC is a merger of several mainline denominations, including Presbyterians, and is widely regarded as a prototype of what the Consultation of Church Union (COCU) in the United States proposes to accomplish.
The history
A 1992 UCC decision to allow the ordination of homosexuals drew objections from four largely black congregations of the synod, including Grace Methodist. The decision prompted a 1993 vote by the Bermuda synod, in which a majority of the synod voted to stay in the UCC. Congregations with predominantly black membership voted strongly in favor of leaving the UCC while the larger, racially mixed or predominantly white congregations voted to stay. At Grace Methodist, 83 percent of the congregation voted to leave the synod.
Grace Methodist elders decided that if the synod would not leave the UCC, then their congregation would leave the synod. In 1995 the congregation, led by elder Willard Lightbourne, informed synod officials that the church would cease to be associated with them.
Since the deed to the property stated that the property would revert to the heirs of the original donors unless used for “religious and moral purposes in accordance with the doctrine, rules and usages of the Methodist Church and for no other uses intents or purposes whatever,” the congregation claimed title to its property, contending that the UCC had departed from the teachings of Methodism, its founder John Wesley, and in particular from the church’s own 1925 Basis of Union.
The synod reacted, claiming that the property belonged to the UCC and that the synod would take over the Sunday services on July 1, 1996.
Dueling Services
On July 1, Rev. Victor MacLeod, secretary to the synod arrived at the church with a piano player to lead services. Lightbourne also arrived with his organist and two side-by-side services began.
McLeod said: “The organ was locked, the piano was tempered [sic] with. So we proceeded to put the piano in order. Mrs. Thomas who had been the organist up until this time and whom I had called to ask if she would play for the service told me that she would be playing the organ but not for the Synod. We proceeded to secure someone to play the music of the worship and when the piano was in readiness she (Mrs. Ileen Vanzort) proceeded to play the piano. In the meantime Mrs. Thomas showed up and she took the place at the organ. I had noted that Mr. Lightbourne was present and meeting with the choir and so I proceeded to indicate to him and the choir that Synod had notified them I was to conduct the service. I proceeded to attempt to conduct the service with disruptions from Mr Lightbourne. We proceeded to carry the service out. We announced one hymn Mr. Lightbourne called another and the organist being under the louder was disruptive. We gave communion but it was a disruptive service.”
Unhappy with the competition, synod officials changed the locks on the church, but the congregation changed them back. Each side filed lawsuits against the other, and eventually, the suits came before the Supreme Court.
The Case
Ian Outerbridge of Mississauga was the attorney for Grace Methodist. His expert witness was Victor Shepherd, pastor of Streetsville United Church in Mississauga and chair of Wesley Studies at Tyndale Seminary, also in Mississauga.
The 32nd General Council’s inability to affirm that homosexuality is a sin “is in fact a blatant denial of the authority of Scripture,” testified Shepherd. He cited various Scripture passages and John Wesley’s commentary on Romans 1: “Receiving the just recompense of their error, their idolatry, being punished with that unnatural lust, which was as horrible a dishonor to the body, as their idolatry was to God.”
Shepherd also noted the denomination’s ultra-ecumenical assertion that “all authentic religions can mediate salvation” and its refusal to discipline its moderator, Rev. Bill Phipps, who recently denied the deity of Christ and the bodily resurrection.
Congregation wins property
Bermuda Supreme Court Judge Norma Wade-Miller wrote in her June 10 decision that “the UCC’s decision to admit homosexuals is a deviation from the original doctrinal standards of the 25 Articles of Faith of John Wesley. I accept Dr. Shepherd’s opinion that UCC has, in its articulation of its formal theology and its fostering of its day to day operative theology, contravened the 25 Articles of the Methodist Church which was written by the late Reverend John Wesley.” The judge said that theological differences between the congregation and the UCC were “so fundamental and deep-seated as to be irreconcilable.”
She noted surprise that the synod offered no expert witness to counter Shepherd’s Wesleyan analysis of current UCC theology. Synod lawyers had argued their claim for the church property only on procedural grounds.
Reactions to the ruling
According to the Ottawa Citizen, Rev. Graham Scott, a conservative United Church of Canada theologian said the decision not only embarrasses the denomination, but also will stir up more discontent among Canadian congregations that are dissatisfied with the denomination’s steady drift toward a more liberal theology.
“If congregations could take their property with them, it wouldn’t surprise me if hundreds of congregations opted out,” said Scott, editor of the Theological Digest and Outlook, and president of Church Alive, a small theological reform group within the denomination.
Shepherd, in an interview with the Alberta Report, pointed out “how ironic it is that a secular court has to decide that a church is violating its own doctrine.”
Gordon Ross, an associate of Outerbridge, said that the Bermuda decision is not binding on Canadian courts, but as the ruling of a “court of competent jurisdiction” within the Commonwealth, would be influential.
“Our view is that property is held by way of an expressed trust for the purpose of the founding doctrines, in this case the Basis of Union of the UCC. If a Canadian court were to conclude that the UCC has so evolved its policies and doctrines that it is no longer in sync with the Basis of Union, then its claim to the property goes up in smoke,” said Ross.
The synod has appealed the court’s decision to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. The appeal date is set for March, and will be heard by three judges. Shepherd told The Layman that lawyers in Bermuda and Canada think the appeal will be “quashed.”
The United Church of Canada has eight affiliated congregations in Bermuda, which are still legally part of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Bermuda. Three other black congregations have since given notice they intend to quit the Methodist Synod and the UCC.