Presbyterians Fight for Custody of Church Property

When married parents break up, the most contentious legal scrums are often over who gets custody of the children. When congregations walk away from the Presbyterian Church (USA), the biggest battles are often about who keeps church property.

As the 2.4 million-member denomination deals with fallout from its June decision to loosen bans on gay clergy, these "custody" battles are elbowing aside theological disputes.

Jerry Van Marter, director of the Presbyterian News Service, said at least five of the denomination's 11,200 congregations have decided to leave the denomination since its national assembly in June, when delegates voted to give local churches more leeway in applying rules against gay clergy.

Conservatives are arguing that if the denomination can overlook rules against gay clergy, then it should also overlook rules that require breakaway congregations to leave their property behind.

The New Wineskins Association of Churches, a network of 128 congregations unhappy with the direction of the denomination, recently asked church leaders for a moratorium on disciplinary action against dissident clergy and congregations. The group also urged the denomination to refrain from legal action over church property.

The church's top elected officer, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, refused, insisting that church leaders "are bound to uphold the constitution of the church and do not have the power unilaterally to set aside any portion."

Moreover, church leaders say the constitution is ironclad when it comes to property. Local congregations hold church property in trust for the denomination. If a congregation wants to leave, the stained glass stays. Van Marter said he could not recall one instance in which the denomination lost a legal dispute with a congregation over church property.

Recent court decisions seem to back up the denomination's claims. Three rulings issued by the Los Angeles County Court all sided with the denomination.

But the Rev. Parker Williamson, former editor of the independent conservative newspaper The Layman, and a member of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, said in the complicated field of trust law, there is no such thing as an open-and-shut case.

Even churches that do not plan to leave may want to wrest control of their property, if only to have more bargaining power with the denomination's leaders, Williamson said.

"There's a sense that you go to the table in an unbalanced position," Williamson said. "A number of churches feel that if they could get the church property thing settled in their favor . . . they might be in a much better negotiating position with church leaders."

For Kirk of the Hills Church, a 2,800-member congregation in Tulsa, the decision to split comes after years of trying to steer the denomination to the right, spokesman David Block said.