Covenant Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Neb. In growing trend, another congregation reaches settlement with presbytery over property, denominational affiliation The Layman Online Wednesday, February 13, 2008 In what has become a growing trend in settling disputes over church property, a congregation in Omaha, Neb., has reached an amicable agreement with its presbytery to disaffiliate from the Presbyterian Church (USA) with its property and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Like congregations in Mississippi and California, among others, Covenant Presbyterian Church in Omaha and the Presbytery of Missouri Valley reached an agreement that allows Covenant to transfer to the EPC. The presbytery is comprised of 56 congregations in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. In February 2007, with 480 of its 720 members voting, the congregation voted 471 to 9 to disaffiliate from the PCUSA and affiliate with the EPC – setting up a potentially contentious separation from the denomination. At the time, church leaders said the congregation was more theologically aligned on certain issues with the EPC than the PCUSA. Wayne Naro, an elder at Covenant, said the congregation has been at odds with the denomination over theological issues for about 10 years and finally reached a breaking point in 2006 over how ministers and elders are ordained – a result of an authoritative interpretation approved as part of the report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity by the 2006 General Assembly. Naro told The Omaha World-Herald that the congregation believed that option could give individual churches the right to ordain homosexuals or people who are committing adultery, among other things. In order to protect its property, Covenant Presbyterian Church filed suit to obtain a judgment that it owned its property. In court documents filed Feb. 15, congregation members claimed ownership of the property, saying that they held the deeds and paid for the building and a subsequent addition. In March, according to The Omaha World-Herald, Covenant Presbyterian Church asked Douglas County District Court to issue a judgment declaring that the congregation – and not the presbytery or the PCUSA – owns its property. The presbytery claimed that the PCUSA held the building under a trust clause, G-8.0201 in the Book of Order: "All property held by or for a particular church, a presbytery, a synod, the General Assembly, or the Presbyterian Church (USA), 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 (USA)." The presbytery responded to the lawsuit and appointed an administrative commission, led by the Rev. Dr. Gary Eller, to deal with Covenant's departure. A spokesman for the church told The Layman Online that Covenant "at all times expressed a willingness to meet with the commission to resolve any issues involving ownership of its property and its departure to the EPC." Members of the administrative commission met with Covenant representatives in September 2007. The church spokesman said the commission members "expressed a real desire to resolve this matter in an amicable manner." They targeted two issues that its members "felt had to be resolved," the church spokesman said: In the 1980s, the presbytery had asked the congregation to move to the suburbs west of downtown Omaha. As an inducement, the church spokesman said the presbytery gave the church approximately $400,000 to help with the move. The administrative commission, according to the church spokesman, felt these funds should be repaid. The administrative commission felt that Covenant should be formally dismissed from the PCUSA to the EPC, which had accepted it in June. In a desire to resolve this matter without further resort to the courts, the church spokesman said, the parties entered into an agreement that provides the following: Covenant will pay the presbytery $125,000 immediately and $30,000 a year for the next seven years. These funds are to be utilized for the mission activities of the presbytery. The presbytery renounced any claim whatsoever to any of Covenant's property, real or personal. Without in any way conceding the propriety of its actions, Covenant agreed to request dismissal from the presbytery and the presbytery agreed to dismiss Covenant and its ministers to the EPC. A letter was sent to each member of the congregation advising them that if they wished to remain in the PCUSA, they were free to do so. This agreement was reached, the church spokesman said, because "both parties came together with a desire to resolve these issues in a Christian spirit." On Oct. 4, 2007, the presbytery unanimously voted to approve Covenant's affiliation with the EPC and the settlement agreement. "The Presbytery voted unanimously to accept the proposed settlement," said Chaz Ruark, interim executive presbyter for the presbytery. "At this point," he told The Omaha World-Herald, "we are going to be parting amicably. We are delighted the folk of Covenant are going to continue to worship in the church in which they now reside." Naro told The Layman Online that Covenant was very grateful that the presbytery was willing to sit down and reach a settlement where both parties can feel that their goals were met. Naro further commented that he felt it was a shame that more presbyteries would follow this example.

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