Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery files affidavits on local church property By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, April 12, 2006 The Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery has filed affidavits in all of its counties declaring the presbytery's authority to limit the right of congregations to sell or encumber their church property and challenging the congregations' right to stake a claim to the property if its members voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA). The affidavits are accompanied by legal descriptions of the property of the 62 congregations in the presbytery. Greg Coulter, general presbyter for the presbytery, told The Layman Online the affidavits were filed in response to a number of recent cases in which Native American congregations sold property without the approval of the presbytery. He insisted the filing of the affidavits was not "about breakaway congregations or the New Wineskins. It was a very practical matter." The post-General Assembly New Wineskins Convocation will meet in Tulsa in July. He said the move to include every church in the presbytery was to treat all congregations the same. Asked whether the Office of the General Assembly's constitutional services had recommended the strategy, Coulter said no. However, he added that trustees of the presbytery might have contacted constitutional services for advice. In response to votes by a number of congregations to leave the PCUSA, the Office of the General Assembly, headed by Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, has become increasingly vigorous in supporting the denomination's constitutional polity that declares that local church property is held in trust for the "use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church (USA)." Denominational leaders and attorneys met with several presbyteries to encourage them to uphold the denomination's property laws. They also invited presbytery leaders and attorneys representing the presbyteries to a closed-door meeting to discuss property issues. The media were denied requests to attend the meeting. One attorney told The Layman Online that the effect of the Oklahoma affidavits would be comparable to liens filed against local church property to help ensure that courts not decide congregational property issues without the consent of the presbytery. The affidavits were signed by the Rev. Ann Brizendine, president of the trustees and pastor of the 310-member First Presbyterian Church in Muskogee. She noted in the affidavit that the bylaws of the presbytery also designate her as the president of the presbytery corporation. The affidavits quote a number of sections in Chapter 8 of the Book of Order, the chapter that deals with property issues, including G-8.0101: All property held by or for a particular church, a presbytery, a synod, the General Assembly, or the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 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 (U.S.A.). Brizendine's affidavit says, "A church cannot sell or encumber its real property without permission of its presbytery pursuant to Section G-8.0501 of the Book of Order, which states: A particular church shall not sell, mortgage, or otherwise encumber any of its real property and it shall not acquire real property subject to an encumbrance or condition without the written permission of the presbytery transmitted through the session of the particular church. She also quotes G-8.0401 of the Book of Order: Whenever a particular church is formally dissolved by the presbytery, or has become extinct by reason of the dispersal of its members, the abandonment of its work, or other cause, such property as it may have shall be held, used, and applied for such uses, purposes, and trusts as the presbytery may direct, limit, and appoint, or such property may be sold or disposed of as the presbytery may direct, in conformity with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The decision to file the affidavits was made by the presbytery's Board of Trustees. Elders and ministers who serve as commissioners to the presbytery were not informed about the affidavits or asked to approve them before they were filed with county courts.

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