“The three neutral principles of law are as follows: (1) who holds the deeds to church property, (2) what does state law say, (3) what does the hierarchical church law say.”

Editor’s Note: This is a letter to fellow presbyters from Rev. Todd Allen, an honorably retired teaching elder from Northwest Georgia Presbytery. TE Allen was the pastor of the Eastern Heights Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Ga., from 1962-1974, during the time frame he refers to in his narrative when the church withdrew from the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS).

Property is power! We fought long and hard through 3 1/2 years of litigation to keep church property rights for PCUS congregations. Those property rights were written into the Book of Church Order when we formed the Continuing Presbyterian Church (Now the Presbyterian Church in America) in December of 1973 at the Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

We from the old church once believed without question that we had local church property rights in the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Those rights were challenged in 1966 when two Savannah churches (Eastern Heights Presbyterian Church and Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Church) voted on April 17, 1966 to withdraw from the PCUS over departures from the PCUS constitution. The Savannah Presbytery then named an Administrative Commission to defrock the two ministers and the ruling elders of both churches and install presbytery appointed ministers and sessions.

The two churches obtained a court injunction to stop the presbytery from assuming this original jurisdiction and taking over the government and property of the two churches. The presbytery then went to the Superior Court of Chatham County, Georgia and declared that they were justified in assuming original jurisdiction because there was an implied trust on church property in favor of the PCUS presbytery.

The two churches therefore had to prove to a twelve member jury that the PCUS had violated its trust by departing from its constitution.. The jury unanimously ruled in favor of the two churches and awarded them rights to their church property. The presbytery then appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court and in a unanimous decision that court also awarded the property to the two local churches.

The presbytery then appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. That court took the case and in a unanimous decision remanded the case back to the Georgia Supreme Court, stating on remand that civil courts are proper forums to adjudicate church property disputes but that they cannot determine church doctrine.

The Supreme Court enunciated three neutral principles for courts to use in adjudicating church property disputes. The three neutral principles are as follows: (1) who holds the deeds to church property, (2) what does state law say, (3) what does the hierarchical church law say.

Following that Supreme Court remand the Georgia Supreme Court determined that the two Savannah churches satisfied all three neutral principles that the Supreme Court had enunciated and in a second unanimous decision awarded the church property to the two local congregations.

The Georgia Supreme Court also struck down a Georgia statue known as Mack vs. Kime that had given church hierarchies an implied trust vested interest in the property of its connectional congregations.

The Savannah Presbytery then again appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In January of 1970 the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, thus ending 3 1/2 years of litigation.

Dominic Aquila has written a very important and incisive article on the inherent possibility of a civil court ruling that there would be a hierarchal civil connection between PCA church courts if BCO 14 amendments are adopted. This would very likely result in a loss of local church control of its church property. He recommends that these BCO amendments be defeated. I certainly concur with him.

Please take time to read Dominic Aquila’s article below before voting on the BCO 14 Amendments.

Your brother in Christ,

Todd W. Allen
PCA Honorably Retired Minister
Midway PCA (Powder Springs, GA) Pastor Emeritus

BCO 14 Amendments, An Unintended Consequence: Jeopardizing the PCA’s Non-hierarchical Connectionalism