Crestwood’s counter offer was $400,000, and while in negotiations, the other costs were added. Crestwood’s offer, it said, compared with settlements reach by other churches that had successfully negotiated their way out of the presbytery, and was an estimate of what the church could afford to pay.

After several churches have negotiated their way out of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the Presbytery of the James, some are questioning the sudden hard-line approach taken by the presbytery in its negotiations with Crestwood Presbyterian Church.

The presbytery has put a price tag of $3.5 million for the church, with campuses in Midlothian and Richmond, Va., to leave the PCUSA with its property. A counter-offer from the church included a payment of $400,000; an annual contribution to a PCUSA mission of the session’s choosing of $10,000 for five years; and a five-year extension of the trust clause, ensuring that if the church closes within five years, the property would revert to the PCUSA.

Both proposals are included in the agenda for the Saturday meeting of James Presbytery at Union Presbyterian Seminary, but the presbytery AC has recommended that the presbytery not consider either, but instead, “refer this matter for further negotiation to the Trustees (those individuals elected by the presbytery to steward legal matters of property.”

“Our fervent hope is that, with the benefit of a fresh set of eyes, hearts and voices in the conversation, a mutually-agreed-upon resolution can be reached,” the AC wrote.

The $3.5 million the presbytery is demanding is actually a decrease from the more than $5 million price the presbytery’s Administrative Commission (AC) first offered to the church. Calling it a “reasonable and faithful” recommendation, the AC gave the church the option of “either returning all property to the denomination, or purchasing it for an amount that honors the denomination’s lawful and legitimate interest.” The estimated value of the property — real and personal — is more than $5 million.

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