Fremont free at last; pays its way out of the PCUSA
Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, December 13, 2012
Fremont Presbyterian Church, one of Sacramento Presbytery’s largest congregations, is free to leave the PCUSA with its property… for a price.
The Rev. Jay Wilkins, Sacramento’s Transitional Presbyter, called the agreement which was approved by the presbytery on November 10 “creative” and “faithful.” Wilkins lauded the agreement as a model “which shows the church a different way of resolving a conflicted situation.”
Fremont’s session described the deal is less effusive terms. In a letter to the congregation recommending approval it said, “At first glance, the agreement probably provides everyone with something to like and something to question …” The session also provided the congregation a thorough FAQ document to help them understand the process and particulars.
Fremont will pay the presbytery $500,000 ($50,000 annually for ten years) or a reduced price of $350,000 if Fremont is willing to pay in full within six months. Additionally, Fremont will allow the handful of its members who wish to be a PCUSA congregation (described by the presbytery as “a group of 8 or more”) rent free space in Fremont’s chapel, a welcome that Fremont has often extended to other Christian groups in the Sacramento area.
By a nearly 4-1 margin in October, 2011, the 1,234-member congregation voted its intention to exit the PCUSA for the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church denomination. Remaining at issue was Fremont’s valuable five-acre property, located across the street from the University of California’s Sacramento campus.
Fremont took the presbytery at its word that it would pursue a “gracious dismissal policy” with churches like Fremont whose congregations overwhelmingly express their desire to depart. But for reasons that Fremont could not initially comprehend, presbytery officials dragged their feet after Fremont’s vote. Then it came to light that presbytery officials were meeting secretly with a handful of Fremont’s members, providing meeting space, a bank account and presbytery resources in order to help them organize a PCUSA loyal group inside the Fremont congregation. Such groups are often identified by hardball playing presbyteries as “the true church” in whose name property rights are claimed.
That discovery of the presbytery’s clandestine activities led to open warfare, in which Fremont, still a PCUSA church at that point, challenged the presbytery in PCUSA courts, charging the presbytery with the failure to live up to its own standards.
In the midst of the ensuing nastiness, a 15-member mediation team was formed (six chosen by the presbytery’s committee on ministry, six chosen by the Fremont session, and three chosen by Fremont members who wish to remain in the PCUSA). An attorney described by Wilkins as “experienced in faith-based mediation” facilitated the group’s recommendation that was adopted by the Fremont congregation and the presbytery.
Fremont is not Sacramento Presbytery’s only loss. In a stream of debilitating departures, six congregations, Fair Oaks (2,286 members), Roseville (1,143 members), Sierra (438 members), Gridley (116 members), Pioneer (60 members), and First, R edding (190 members) beat them to the exit. Fremont will now join its formerly PCUSA sister congregations in the EPC’s presbytery of the Pacific.