PCUSA joins ECUSA in backing ‘hierarchical’ claims on church property
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 17, 2006
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has filed a brief in a California church property dispute on behalf of another “hierarchical” denomination that seeks to confiscate the property of a congregation that voted with near unanimity to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church (USA).
The brief also is intended to support the property claims in cases involving PCUSA congregations, including First Presbyterian Church in Torrance, Calif. The Torrance case pits the denomination against a congregation that has 3,000 members and was the largest Korean congregation in the PCUSA before it voted to affiliate with the Korean Presbyterian Church. A trial is scheduled soon in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The friend-of-the-court brief follows the PCUSA’s legal playbook – as outlined in “privileged and confidential” documents that were published by The Layman Online. For instance, it makes a strong assertion that the vote by the congregation of St. James Parish in the Diocese of Los Angeles was schismatic and that, “Since 2003, the congregation of St. James Parish has been torn apart by a schism regarding theological/ecclesiastical issues.”
Eric C. Sohlgren, attorney for St. James, took strong exception to the PCUSA’s depiction of the congregation as being schismatic.
“It is understandable that PCUSA is completely ignorant of what really happened at St. James, but I hardly think a packed sanctuary with hundreds of people leaping to their feet in spontaneous shouts of joy and praise at the disaffiliation announcement, and a near unanimous vote of the members to disaffiliate, as being ‘torn apart by schism,'” Sohlgren said.
A Superior Court judge rejected arguments by the diocese that a “true church” loyal to the ECUSA should get the St. James property. That verdict was appealed to the 4th Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal.
The PCUSA brief, written on behalf of the denomination, the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii and Hanmi Presbytery, argued that the trial court erred by not awarding the property to the “true church,” meaning those who remained loyal to the denomination.
Sohlgren told The Layman Online that the case involves “one former, uninvolved member [who] sued St. James.” He also noted that the diocese’s effort to start a new Episcopal church in the area disintegrated.
“It’s interesting how the PCUSA, like the Episcopal Church, is quick to vilify local churches who are simply trying to be obedient to the historic Christian faith,” he said.
The Episcopal Church (USA), like Roman Catholics and Orthodox denominations, is hierarchical, and bishops have ultimate authority over congregations. But the PCUSA is not hierarchical – except when it goes to court to enforce the denomination’s property trust clause. The denomination even suggests that lawyers representing the PCUSA refer to presbyteries as “bishops” to convince the courts that the denomination is hierarchical.
Thus, the PCUSA argued in its Oct. 9 California brief, “civil courts must defer to decisions made by a hierarchical church organization regarding religious doctrine and polity. This specifically includes decisions made regarding which faction of a local church is in schism is entitled to control and manage the church’s affairs.”
And, it argues, “It does not matter if the true church constitutes a minority of the congregation,” or, as in the St. James case, a single person. “One faction of a local church, even a majority, cannot by fiat or litigation usurp the denomination’s authority over these matters.”
The brief asserted that the trial court “was mistaken. Directly to the contrary, the lower court had no authority to make an independent determination of the merits of the Diocese’s ‘true church’ declaration, as alleged in the complaint. Rather, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment demands that civil courts defer to the internal decisions of hierarchical religious denominations carried out in the ordinary course of governance.”
The brief relies heavily on an 1871 Supreme Court decision in Watson v. Jones. The court said then, in a ruling involving a dispute over Presbyterian church property in Louisville, Ky., that it deferred to the hierarchical denomination. But later Supreme Court decisions affirmed the use of “neutral principles” of law as a basis for settling property disputes.
In California, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal, using “neutral principles,” ruled that a congregation that left the United Methodist Church had legally revoked its denominationally imposed property trust clause and had a right to keep its property.
The St. James case is especially important for the PCUSA’s continued dependence on its hierarchical claims. A similar ruling in the 4th Circuit would shore up the rights of disaffiliating PCUSA congregations.
Sohlgren e-mailed a copy of the PCUSA brief after a request by The Layman Online.
Normally, the Office of the General Assembly, whose top executive is Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, publishes amicus curiae briefs on its Web site. But, as of this afternoon, the California brief was not online.