Jermain Memorial
not dead yet
By Edward Terry, The Layman, June 8, 2010
WATERVLIET, N.Y. – Jermain Memorial Presbyterian Church in Watervliet, N.Y. hosted a funeral on May 30. The problem was the body being eulogized is still alive.
Scheduled to close on May 31, the historic Jermain Memorial Presbyterian Church received a reprieve on April 30 from the Synod of the Northeast by way of a stay of enforcement on the Presbytery of Albany’s action to dissolve the congregation. Though the stay enabled the congregation to survive past its Memorial Day planned closure, it may have only delayed the inevitable as Jermain Memorial is one of approximately two dozen churches that the presbytery says it will euthanize.
The Jermain Memorial Presbyterian Church building stands tall in its Watervliet, N.Y. neighborhood.
The May 30 worship service
at Jermain Memorial Presbyterian
Church included visits from former
pastors and a feeling of finality,
even though the church remains
open for now.
Jermain Memorial member Edward Dombrowski is emphatic that the church is far from being dead and continues to be a lively citizen of Watervliet. He points to a recent case of a needy mother visiting the church’s thrift shop. Dombrowski and others wonder what would have happened to the woman and her children if the church had been closed when she needed help.
The loss already is being felt by children in the church’s Grow and Learn Day School, whom presbytery officials locked out of the building last week. Soon the community’s poorest children could suffer as the local school district’s summer free lunch program was told it could no longer operate at Jermain Memorial due to the pending closure. School officials would not comment on the presbytery’s action or how it affects the lunch program.
“What they are doing right now, they are firing all of our staff and preventing us from operating as a Christian church,” Dombrowski said. “They are systematically going through and preventing access to the church and to those who receive services from those programs.”
The message that Dombrowski is hoping to get across is that Jermain Memorial still is open, and everyone is welcome. That message is hard to deliver now that the presbytery has bolted the building.
The presbytery voted Nov. 17, 2009 to dissolve the congregation and assume control of its session through an administrative commission, despite objections from a contingent of church members trying to keep the church open. Jermain Memorial’s membership and attendance have dwindled, and the upkeep of the Gothic-style stone structure isn’t getting cheaper. Some of its members support closing the church, but there are others who worry that the presbytery is up to no good in its efforts. Some speculate that presbytery officials are more interested in the Jermain family endowment and the historic property it supports.
At a synod Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) hearing on June 4, the presbytery tried to get the stay lifted. Both sides are waiting to hear the decision. If the stay remains, there will be a hearing on June 25 to consider Jermain Memorial’s complaint. If it is lifted, the church officially will be dissolved.
‘It’s about time’
The Trinity Sunday service at Jermain Memorial was billed as its final service. It was a bright, sunny day with chirping birds filling the gaps between hymns and liturgical responses.
Three former pastors shared their most cherished memories of the church, and current interim pastor, the Rev. Joseph Shook, read from Ecclesiastes 3 (“… a time to be born and a time to die …”) . The Rev. Charlene Baird followed with a sermon, entitled “It’s About Time,” in which she challenged Jermain Memorial’s members to share the Gospel outside the church’s walls. The Revs. Laurence Greenwold and James Thompson also shared memories. Thompson, who served the congregation from 1970-1996, suggested that members join regional Presbyterian activities after the Jermain Memorial’s closure.
The service concluded with an announcement from Albany Presbytery Moderator Terence Diggory that questions at the synod level, stemming from a complaint filed by a group of Jermain Memorial members, would delay the closing. Diggory confirmed that worship would continue at Jermain Memorial while the issues are resolved.
“We all need to be patient as that process moves forward,” he said. “We’re all in this together. … Some of us here feel the need for closure. Some of us here feel the need to resist closure. Our common faith is that God knows what we each need individually.”
Yet the feeling of finality, punctuated by a few sniffles during the service and worship leaders referring to Jermain Memorial in the past tense, was impossible to ignore.
Who’s in charge?
After the worship service, Elder Jeanne Kippen, who was clerk of session before the presbytery took over, locked the offering in the church office. During an animated conversation that followed, Kippen was called “a thief.” When asked to discuss the situation, Shook refused to speak with The Layman and encouraged others to decline comment. Two days later, presbytery officials retaliated by locking church members out of their building.
On June 4, the synod PJC ruled that the administrative commission remains in charge, and is responsible for maintaining the property and keeping a schedule of regular worship. That may be difficult, since the staff that previously handled those duties was fired by the administrative commission, which some church members say violates the stay of enforcement. The monthly upkeep is at least $4,000 per month, Dombrowski said. Elder Ronald Neaton estimates the monthly expense at approximately $7,000.
According to a Watervliet city official, the administrative commission could face fines. Jermain Memorial’s grass, as of June 8, had not been mowed and its unsightly appearance is a violation of city ordinances.
Secular courts to consider case
At the center of the dispute, in addition to the closing of the congregation, is the ownership of the church property and what to do with the approximate $169,000 Jermain family legacy fund. In 1874, James B. Jermain, who had given land and money for the construction of the majestic sanctuary, left a $100,000 legacy for sustaining public worship in Jermain Memorial Church. Jermain’s gift included a clause requiring the property be returned to the family if the church ceased to exist. Informed of the presbytery’s declared intent to close the church, a Jermain descendent, Ann Jermain Walling Billings, claimed the property and deeded it to those members who wish to continue the church’s ministry.
In February, the presbytery asked the New York Supreme Court to terminate the rights of any Jermain descendants to the property. Attorney Rosemary Nichols, who represents the group trying to keep the church open, filed a counteraction in March. The response raises four issues:
- Is the presbytery treating the congregation fairly, based on New York civil rights law?
- Can Ann Jermain Walling Billings, as an heir of James B. Jermain, transfer the property to Kippen as former clerk of session to keep the local church open?
- Was the presbytery diligent in trying to find Jermain heirs?
- Is the former moderator of presbytery serving as a paid attorney in efforts to close the church a conflict of interest?
Court
filings also detailed actions leading up to the May 31 closure date that Nichols claims were in violation of the synod stay of enforcement.
The secular court is not likely to act on the case any time soon, Nichols said, because it is waiting for the ecclesiastical courts to rule on the case. The property dispute is complicated and could consume years of argument and money to settle.
Nichols said the groups were close to a settlement earlier this year that would have prevented closure and allowed the local group to disaffiliate, but one sticking point couldn’t be resolved.
According to court documents, the presbytery wanted to prohibit the remaining congregation from using the word “Presbyterian.” The members objected, not so much out of a love for the word, but because deleting it from their name might be construed as a breach of the Jermain endowment.
“That was completely unacceptable,” Nichols said.
Fighting for their life
The next synod hearing, assuming the stay of enforcement remains in place, is scheduled for June 25 when the PJC will consider the members’ complaint against the presbytery and the presbytery’s response.
The complaint alleges that:
- Temporary Supply Pastor Edward Shook, who has been at Jermain Memorial since October 2007, announced the church’s closing months before presbytery’s official action; spent $14,000 from Jermain Memorial’s restricted funds on legal fees paid to Albany Presbytery’s moderator; and altered the session minutes from a Sept. 3, 2009 meeting.
- Albany Presbytery denied Jermain Memorial its “full right to be heard” prior to the Nov. 17 vote to close it. In its complaint, the congregation argues that “3 or 4 minutes does not constitute a full opportunity to be heard.”
- Albany Presbytery failed to act as constitutionally required under the Book of Order.
The relief requested by the group includes:
- Not dissolving the congregation;
- Terminating the presbytery’s original jurisdiction over the congregation and its power as session;
- Terminating the contract between Shook and the church; and
- Ending the presbytery’s litigation to claim the Jermain property.
According to the complaint, the synod, presbytery and Office of the General Assembly all were notified of the issues. Sixteen members of the congregation also submitted a statement to the presbytery, in hopes of persuading commissioners to vote against the dissolution. In the complaint, the group seemed most frustrated about Shook’s leadership and claims he has worked contrary to the congregation’s desire to be a vital church.
Shook, who declined comment on the situation, seemed equally exasperated with the situation following the May 30 service. Jermain Memorial Administrative Commission Chairman Roland McDonald said the congregation had asked to have Shook’s contract renewed in previous years.
“In the context of the conflict at the last minute, I can imagine that some things had gotten tattered and torn,” McDonald said.
The presbytery, on June 8, was scheduled to approve an extension of Shook’s contract at Jermain on a month-to-month basis until the remedial complaint is settled.
What’s next?
Even though the locks at Jermain Memorial had been changed earlier in the week, last weekend was almost business as usual. On Saturday, June 5, the congregation hosted a community yard sale with proceeds helping fund a civic center summer youth program, Dombrowski said. The next day, the sanctuary was opened and members of Jermain Memorial worshiped.
“We received the sacraments,” Dombrowski said. “There was no music, there was no offering, and no community concerns.”
Yet members of the congregation fighting to keep the church open remain optimistic.
“We’re very optimistic that we’ll be able to continue worshiping weekly and meeting the needs of the community’s mission work,” Dombrowski said. “The congregation was uplifted after Friday, and is very confident.”
At the Nov. 17 presbytery meeting, the group wanting to keep the church open asked the presbytery to leave the Jermain Memorial session in place and appoint a new pastor. The congregation also asked that the remaining funds in the Jermain Memorial Trust be used for that purpose and that it be given at least two years to revitalize the church.
“This is precisely what Mr. Jermain would have requested,” the complaint states. “Revisit this issue in two years. If closure seems appropriate at that time, after an effort to revitalize, led by a pastor in whom the session had a role in selection has not convinced you to the contrary, we will join in the effort with you. We ask only for that opportunity.”
If the presbytery wins and the church is closed, Nichols said the group she represents hopes to take the Jermain Memorial name and establish a congregation elsewhere in Watervliet using the legacy that was left for that purpose.