 Overture would let departing congregations retain property By John H. Adams The Layman Online Thursday, February 23, 2006 The Presbytery of Stockton in the Sacramento region of California has submitted an overture to the 217th General Assembly that calls for major revisions in the property chapter of the Book of Order. If approved by the General Assembly and ratified by the presbyteries in a constitutional referendum, Stockton's proposed amendment would radically amend the property trust clause in Chapter 8 of the Book of Order and allow congregations to leave the denomination with their property upon a 60-percent vote of the membership. The denomination's current constitutional requirements on church property provide "no Biblical or moral basis why a congregation's property should be controlled by or forfeited to the PCUSA upon severance by that congregation from PCUSA, except only to the extent PCUSA has expended funds in behalf of such church to acquire, improve or repair such property," the overture says. "Then [the] PCUSA should have the limited right to reimbursement for those funds." The overture comes at a time of growing unrest in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and civil suits filed by presbyteries, with financial support from the denomination for their litigation costs, to stake a claim on property by congregations that voted to leave the denomination. In those cases, at a cost that could amount to millions of dollars, the denomination bases its property claims on Chapter 8, particularly G-8.0201:
The overture calls for the repeal of G-8.0301, which says:
The following is the text of the overture: Overture 71. On Amending G-8.0201, "Property is Held in Trust" – From the Presbytery of Stockton. BE IT RESOLVED THAT G-8.0201 be amended to read: "All property held by or for a particular church, no matter how title is held or by whom, is the sole property of that church, except that the amount of any financial assistance provided by PCUSA to that church to purchase, improve or repair that property, is a lien on that property for the benefit of PCUSA." BE IT RESOLVED THAT G-8.0300 and 8.0301 be amended by deleting all the provisions contained therein. BE IT RESOLVED THAT G-8.0401 be amended to read: "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 and no longer exists as a church body, 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 PCUSA. BE IT RESOLVED THAT G-8.0501 be amended to read: "So long as a particular church is a member of PCUSA, it 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." BE IT RESOLVED THAT G-8.0502 be amended to read: "So long as a particular church is a member of PCUSA, it shall not lease its real property used for purposes of worship, or lease for more than five years any of its other real property, without the written permission of the presbytery transmitted through the session of the particular church." BE IT RESOLVED THAT G-8.0601 be amended to read: "The relationship to the PCUSA of a particular church can be severed by either constitutiona1 action on the part of the presbytery (G-11.0103i), or by the vote of sixty (60) percent of the active membership of that particular church. If there is a schism within the membership of a particular church and the presbytery is unable to effect a reconciliation or a division into separate churches within PCUSA, the sixty (60) percent vote of the active membership within that particular church shall determine what shall be done with that church's property not withstanding the provisions of G-11.O1O3i or any other provision in the Book of Order. Rationale As Chapter VIII of the Book of Order now reads, if a congregation has any irreconcilable theological differences with the actions of the leadership of PCUSA, or to any future amendments to the Book of Order, that congregation has only two options: it can stay in PCUSA in spite of those irreconcilable differences, or it can separate from PCUSA and forfeit all of its assets to PCUSA. There is no Biblical or moral basis why a congregation's property should be controlled by or forfeited to the PCUSA upon severance by that congregation from PCUSA, except only to the extent PCUSA has expended funds in behalf of such church to acquire, improve or repair such property. Then PCUSA should have the limited right to reimbursement for those funds. No church should have to forfeit its assets to uphold its Biblical beliefs. Amending Chapter VIII will eliminate these forfeiture clauses in the Book of Order and protect the assets of each congregation: the body of Christ that paid for those assets. |
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