Mississippi Presbytery calls for group to review report on church property By John H. Adams The Layman Online Monday, October 23, 2006 The Presbytery of Mississippi has delayed action on a task force report that some commissioners believed recommended an unconstitutional strategy for dealing with congregations that may seek to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) with their property. No vote on the task force report was taken at the presbytery's meeting last week. Instead, the presbytery's commissioners decided to establish another group – including members of the task force, the Committee on the Preparation for Ministry and the Committee on Ministry – to review the proposals. John Dudley, the presbytery's stated clerk, said today that the presbytery wanted "clarification" of the proposals in the task force report and revisions that would not violate the property requirements in the Book of Order. "We take seriously adhering to one part of the Book of Order, and then ignoring or finessing another part of it," he said. He said the presbytery will reconsider the recommendations and changes at its meeting on Feb. 27, 2006. The presbytery previously declared that it would follow the constitutional mandate not to ordain ordain men and women who refuse to comply with the Book of Order's "fidelity/chastity" ordination requirement, even though the 2006 General Assembly approved an authoritative interpretation that allows ordaining bodies to grant exceptions. In another matter during last week's meeting, the presbytery voted to have a second group review the "Essential Tenets and Reformed Distinctives" adopted by the Presbytery of San Diego as a guideline for candidates for church offices. Before being sent back to the drawing board, the property task force asked the presbytery to recognize that some congregations might find themselves better able to work for the Great Ends of the Church if they are not members of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The panel asked the presbytery to approve a resolution saying: "That it trusts its congregations to make their own decisions concerning how best to use their property to accomplish the Great Ends of the Church." "That the Presbytery of Mississippi recognizes all its particular churches as having the ability to sell, lease, mortgage, or otherwise encumber any of their real property without further written permission of the Presbytery." "That the Presbytery of Mississippi recognizes all its particular churches as having the ability to acquire real property subject to an encumbrance or condition without further written permission of the Presbytery." "That it shall it shall take no action to enforce any general trust interest claimed by any higher governing body against any property, real or personal, held by any of its congregations." "That it will not resist any congregation of the Presbytery of Mississippi which would ask the courts of the State of Mississippi to clear its property of any claims made by higher governing bodies against that property." "We maintain it is inadequate to say that the PCUSA owns the property of all its member congregations because such a statement is present in the Book of Order, because individual congregations didn't have an opportunity to vote on whether that requirement would be in the Book of Order," the task force said. "Presbyteries, not congregations, vote on changes to the Book of Order. It is just as impossible for presbyteries to transfer titles to property that they do not themselves hold as it is for the PCUSA simply to assert that it has title to all the property of all its member congregations."

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