“We’re a former ‘Southern Presbyterian’ (PCUS) church that within eight years following reunion voted for the exception in the Book of Order’s Section G-8.0701 that exempts a former PCUS church from the denomination’s church property restrictions (G-8.0500). Did that action protect us from the ‘trust’ that the Presbyterian Church (USA) has imposed on local church property (G-8.0200)?”

Current PCUSA denominational lawyers answer that question with a firm and unequivocal “no.”

They argue that the Book of Order’s trust clause (G-8.0200) applies to all local church property, both real and personal, no matter how it is titled. They say that when former southern churches filed for the exception (G-8.0701), they only freed themselves from the requirement that local churches obtain written permission from the presbytery before they buy, sell or mortgage local church property. This freedom, say denominational lawyers, does not exempt local church property from the denomination’s asserted trust.

The Carrollton Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, La. challenged that interpretation in trial court and won. When granting a preliminary injunction favoring Carrollton, the trial court said, “[T]he unfettered right to dispose of all of one’s property is mutually exclusive of any right by a third party to dictate the disposition of that same property …
Read More: http://www.layman.org/news.aspx?article=28295

[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]