Located near Kansas City, Colonial [Presbyterian Church, with one campus in Kansas and one in Missouri] left the PCUSA following an overwhelming 927-27 vote in August 2010. Citing theological differences with the denomination, the congregation also approved a move to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

A Missouri presbytery lost its second attempt to seize the property of a departed church Thursday after a Kansas court ruled in favor of a former Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in a property battle involving land in two states.

On Feb. 2, District Court Judge Thomas Sutherland ruled that Heartland Presbytery has no stake in a $10.5 million tract of land in Johnson County, Kan. owned by Colonial Presbyterian Church.

In July 2011, a Missouri circuit court ruled in favor of Colonial in a decision that allowed the 1,700-member congregation to keep its property following the church’s 2010 departure from Heartland.

The Missouri court ruled that the church held clear title to both its Missouri and Kansas campuses and that no trust agreement existed between Colonial and Heartland.

Located near Kansas City, Colonial left the PCUSA following an overwhelming 927-27 vote in August 2010. Citing theological differences with the denomination, the congregation also approved a move to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

Efforts to seek an agreeable departure agreement with Heartland led to a protracted battle that included restraining orders from both denominational and secular judicial bodies, formal complaints by other Heartland churches and a flurry of letters.

One of Heartland’s letters told Colonial it had no right to leave the denomination. Ultimately, Colonial filed a lawsuit against the presbytery and Heartland filed counterclaims against Colonial.

In less than a month after the Missouri ruling, Heartland filed suit in Kansas claiming the congregation’s Quivira campus in Overland Park belongs to the presbytery and the PCUSA.

In a 17-page decision, Sutherland disagreed, ruling that “the same issues before this court were properly before the Missouri court, which found that no [property] trust existed” and that Heartland’s claim lacked any merit.

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