Property issue to be tackled at New Wineskins convocation
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, April 19, 2005
The question of who owns a congregation’s property will be one of the issues discussed by delegates to a national convocation considering a “bold new design” for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The New Wineskins Initiative convocation, with the theme “Following Christ into the 21st Century,” will be held June 15-18 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn.
A workshop session titled “Church Property and God’s Economy” will explore an issue that has been growing within the Protestant mainline denominations. At least two property-dispute cases are under way in civil courts involving PCUSA congregations. Both congregations, which are evangelical and orthodox, voted to leave the PCUSA because of their disagreement with the actions and decisions of Presbyterian leaders.
In California, Serone Church, an independent Korean congregation in Artesia, is trying to fend off the Presbytery of Hamni’s attempt to seize its property and assets. In North Carolina, Hephzibah Evangelical Church near Bessemer City has asked the North Carolina Court of Appeals to reverse a ruling by a state judge, who awarded the property to the presbytery.
Both congregations are challenging the PCUSA’s property trust clause, G-8.0201in the Book of Order, which states:
“All property held by or for a particular church, a presbytery, a synod, the General Assembly, or the Presbyterian Church (USA), whether legal title is lodged in a corporation, a trustee or trustees, or an unincorporated association, and whether the property is used in programs of a particular church or of a more inclusive governing body or retained for the production of income, is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
Another case involved St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, a Fresno, Calif., congregation that left the 8.5-million denomination in 2000 to become an independent Methodist church. Last December, the California Supreme Court let stand a lower court’s ruling that the congregation had the right to revoke the United Methodist property trust agreement and keep its property.
Last year, a Maryland state court ruled in favor of a dissident congregation that left the AME Zion Church. Similar challenges of church property laws are being pursued by congregations in the Episcopal Church (USA).
Delegates to the convocation will vote on whether to endorse a proposal regarding the property issue during the convocation.
Delegates also will work on draft documents that propose new statements of faith essentials and ethical imperatives, as well as a revised constitution that calls for greater flexibility, a new approach to leadership development at the congregational level and a pared-down, adaptive service structure at the national level.
While the convocation will include preaching, prayer and worship, as well as an international flavor with guests and speakers from Presbyterian churches around the world, the focus will be on how evangelical Presbyterians respond to what task force leaders called “grave concerns about the health and effectiveness of our present organization” in theology, mission and structure.
More information about the convocation is available on a special convocation Web site.
For further information, contact “Following Christ into the 21st Century” at 888-754-9693, or 7435 E. Oxford Ct., Wichita, Kan. 67226.