By Don K. Clements

The Miraloma Community Church (MCC) is located on top of the highest point in the City of San Francisco. Looking out their windows gives you some of the most magnificent views imaginable. It is a small, community church, a member of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) denomination. Here is how they describe themselves on their web site:

We encounter God in word, music, readings, prayers, drama and personal sharing as we gather together each week. Our focus is on seeking, experiencing and serving God alongside one another. We seek to follow Jesus and the way of life that he showed us of grace, love, mercy and peace.

Our purpose is to value people the way Jesus values them—sharing, ministering, giving to all those needing help in body or spirit, and becoming friends for the journey. We desire to use our gifts, talents and interests, as we serve human kind and care for our planet. Our actions and activities during the week are purposed toward living Christ-like lives. We engage the power of the Holy Spirit to assist us in this goal.

We know that God uses the small, broken and overlooked things of this world to display his glory, and reveal his plan. We look for God’s presence in our lives, our Church and our world. As we follow Jesus, our lives and, hopefully, everything and everyone we touch are transformed.

Those of us who worship and minister in the thousands of small churches in America know these feelings well. And most of us would feel the same as members of MCC if confronted by a denominational hierarchy who wants to take over control of the property because of its multi-million dollar land value:

I disagree with the ruling,” said Dorothy Calvin. “I feel the judges did not even read our briefs.”

“We’re like a family,” said Jenny Ryan. “We’re inclusive, intergenerational, racially diverse, very welcoming. They just don’t value a small congregation.”

Alan Friedman, an attorney representing the RCA, expressed a different opinion: “It wasn’t serving the community and accomplishing its mission. It wasn’t founded to be a private church for 20 people.”

According to church records, the membership paid for the church when it was established, and all loans are paid off. They feel the church clearly belongs to them. The denomination’s desire to take over is “at odds with American religious history,” said Donald Falk, a lawyer for Miraloma. Knowing the denomination wanted to take over the property, the congregation voted two years ago to separate from the denomination.

However, in a recent ruling filed on Sept 9,2009, upholding a San Francisco judge’s earlier ruling, the California First District Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that “Miraloma Church is a subordinate member church in the RCA hierarchy, bound by the RCA’s rules, canons and constitution.” Because of this, the church “lacked the power to take such actions to terminate the Church’s affiliation with the RCA.” Speaking for the panel, Justice Timothy Reardon said a member church can’t change its status by amending its bylaws to end its affiliation, as the local board tried to do.

(Editor’s note: This legal rational is the exact opposite from the judgment of the South Carolina Supreme Court in the case of the All Saints Waccamaw parish reported recently in TheAquilaReport.)

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]