Exit fees for leaving PCUSA
range up to $8,000 per member
By John H. Adams, The Layman , August 25, 2008
Escape from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and its property trust clause apparently may have become easier and less costly than when the current exodus began in 2000, but it’s still pricey.
That was the year that the congregation of Norcrest Presbyterian Church in Findlay, Ohio, voted 209-19 to leave the denomination, only to have the Presbytery of Maumee react quickly by confiscating the property, changing the locks and firing the minister.
With no place to meet, the homeless congregation, later to become Gateway Presbyterian Church in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, gathered that first Sunday in a dog pound. The members next met in a school and then built a $3.5-million worship, teaching and fellowship facility.
Combining the loss of property valued at $2 million and the price of the new complex, the total cost to the congregation was $5.5 million. With more than 700 members today – up from 491 in 2000 – the per-member cost was nearly $8,000.
Meanwhile, the “true church” that the presbytery declared to be the rightful owners of the Norcrest property has dwindled. It began with 63 members and had 33 at the end of 2007.
No other departure has approached what Gateway lost and had to replace.
First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, La., got the best deal. The Presbytery of Southern Louisiana voted 55-13 on Nov. 4, 2006, that the congregation, now a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, “holds all property titled in its name in full, complete and unfettered ownership.” The congregation was dismissed from the PCUSA to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church without paying any exit fee. Of course, there were legal fees.
Most property disputes are still unsettled – some in litigation in civil court and others in negotiations with presbyteries.
Here’s what other congregations had to pay to keep their property when they left the denomination:
- Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church in 2007 paid the Presbytery of Pittsburgh $250,000 over 10 years and forfeited a $465,655 trust account – a total of $715,655. The exit cost per member was $2,086.
- Rivermont Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Va., left the PCUSA in 2003 with 911 members. It kept its property by agreeing to pay the Presbytery of the Peaks $1.3 million, or $1,427 per member.
- Circleville Presbyterian Church in Circleville, N.Y., a 100-member congregation in 2002, paid the Presbytery of Hudson River $112,000 to be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The per-member cost of the settlement was $1,120.
- In 2007, Hillsdale Presbyterian Church in Hillsdale, Kan., pledged $90,000 to the Presbytery of the Heartland to take its property into the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. That’s roughly $900 per member.
- The 122-member First Presbyterian Church in Opelika, Ala., paid the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley $105,000 to be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The cost per member was $860.
- Central Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Ala., agreed in 2007 to pay the Presbytery of North Alabama $250,000 to leave with its property. With 340 members, that’s $735 per member.
- First Presbyterian Church in Quincy, Ill., kept its property but changed its name to Faith Presbyterian Church (EPC). In January, its 400 members paid the Presbytery of Great Rivers $196,000, or $490 per member.
- First Presbyterian Church in Corinth, Miss., secured its dismissal from the Presbytery of St. Andrew in 2004 by agreeing to pay the presbytery $150,000, plus $25,000 a year for five years. That’s a total of $225,000, or $480 per member.
- Bay Village Presbyterian Church, a 2,000-member congregation in Ohio, agreed recently to give the Presbytery of Western Reserve $700,000 ($100,000 a year for 7 years) to be dismissed to the EPC. That was $350 per member.
- Covenant Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Neb., with 700 members agreed to pay the Presbytery of Missouri Valley $335,00, or $480 per member.
- Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, with 1,700 members, agreed in April 2008 to a severance payment of $575,000, or $338 per member.
- Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga left the denomination in 2007 with 1,900 members. It negotiated payments totaling $500,000 – about $260 per member – to the Presbytery of East Tennessee.
- Chippewa Presbyterian Church in Beaver Falls, Pa., a 175-member congregation, agreed to give the Presbytery of Beaver Butler $11,200 a year for three years to keep its property and affiliate with the EPC. That’s $190 per member.
- The Presbytery of Western North Carolina in 2007 dismissed the 63-member Murphy Presbyterian Church with its property after the congregation agreed to pay the presbytery $10,000, or $158 per member.