Presbytery's per-capita tactics spawned schism in local church By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, July 15, 2003 The Presbytery of Scioto Valley has tried repeatedly to force sessions – the governing bodies of local congregations – to pay their full per-capita apportionments established by presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly. Presbytery's tactic caused split at Johnstown Church. One such action, a revised financial policy adopted by the presbytery in 2001, caused a schism in one local congregation, with many disgruntled members leaving to organize a new Presbyterian congregation that is now affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This is what happened: Over the objections of evangelical leaders in the presbytery, Scioto Valley adopted the policy that denied presbytery approval for congregations – if they were in the arrears in per capita payments – to take out loans for capital improvements. The policy cut short plans by the Presbyterian Church of Johnstown, Ohio, a growing evangelical congregation, to expand its crowded facilities. Johnstown, a congregation allied with the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA), was exercising its right to withhold per-capita payments. But the presbytery made it impossible for the congregation to get a loan commercially. The PCUSA Constitution says congregations hold their property in trust for the denomination. That law requires presbyteries to approve any encumbrances on that property before renovations or additions can be undertaken. Presbyterian law also says a congregation cannot be punished for choosing not to remit its per-capita. But that seems to be the effect of the Scioto Valley edict that congregations must fully pay their per capita or forfeit their right to loans that might help them serve a growing number of church members. There are no precise numbers available on how many members left Johnstown. The denomination's Office of Research Services says in its published annual report that Johnstown had 232 members as of Dec. 31, 2001. The data for the year that ended on Dec. 31, 2002, has not been published, but a PCUSA researcher told The Layman Online that the figure for that date will be 164 – 30 percent below the previous year. Most of those who left Johnstown Presbyterian Church became charter members of the new Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Unlike the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Presbyterian Church gives local church sessions the authority to encumber or dispose of their property as they wish. While the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has ruled that the Presbytery of Scioto Valley violated church law by compelling payment of per capita, it did not address the issue of presbyteries using nonpayment as a reason to deny sanctioning loans for church development. Asking not to be quoted by name, one member of the PJC told The Layman Online that the appropriate time to consider the encumbrance rule and whether it is punitive would be through a remedial complaint filed when a presbytery refused to give its assent to a church's application for a loan. No such complaint was filed in the Johnstown case. Neither did the appellants in the Scioto case seek relief from the presbytery's financial policy in their original complaint that successfully challenged the presbytery's authority to require full payment of per-capita apportionments. But in their brief, the appellants did comment on the presbytery's encumbrance rule. "This policy has already had a disastrous effect on at least one growing and vital church within the presbytery," the brief said. "Despite pleas from the church's pastor and other ministers and elders on the floor of Presbytery to rescind this restrictive order and allow the church to seek a loan for a badly needed expansion, the Presbytery denied the request. Dismayed at the Presbytery's policy, a sizable contingent broke off from the church to form another Presbyterian congregation. The remaining congregation is working valiantly to continue on, but many good and faithful people have suffered greatly in the process." While repeatedly trying to clamp down on evangelical congregations that have withheld per-capita payment to support presbytery and General Assembly actions, the Presbytery of Scioto Valley has admittedly bent over backwards to assist a now-defunct church that caters to homosexuals. In 1995, the presbytery voted to allow Northminster Presbyterian Church to share all of its worship services and building with a non-Presbyterian congregation that affirmed gay, lesbian and bisexual lifestyles. To protest that decision, a number of sessions voted to withhold per-capita and mission funding from the presbytery. For details of the Northminster compact, see Page 12 of "Responding Faithfully: Making Decisions about Financial Support of PCUSA Governing Bodies in Times of Disorder".

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