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Holy Week resources and reflections

Erskine lawsuit injunction appealed by ARP church

DUE WEST, S.C. — The General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church has appealed the order of a Circuit Court Judge filed earlier this month that granted a preliminary injunction in the case brought against the General Synod by three members of the Board of Trustees and the Erskine Alumni Association.

Judge Eugene C. Griffith Jr. ordered on April 9 that a preliminary injunction be put in place “to maintain the status quo as it existed prior to the General Synod’s March 3, 2010 actions” during a called meeting at Bonclarken in Flat Rock, N.C.

The appeal was filed April 19 with the S.C. Court of Appeals in Columbia and a copy was filed in the Abbeville Clerk of Court’s office, as is required. The appeal would likely be heard by the Court of Appeals in Columbia.

The court action taken by Richard Taylor, Parker Young, J. David Chesnut and the alumni association came after the General Synod’s approval of measures that included removal of 14 trustees from the Erskine College and Seminary board of trustees, establishing an interim board, which has not been seated, revisions to the board bylaws and changes in the board nomination process.

The attorneys for the General Synod have filed a motion in Court of Common Pleas in Abbeville, asking for the complaint filed by Taylor, Young, Chesnut and the alumni association to be dismissed.

The General Synod is also asking the S.C. Court of Appeals to “suspend or modify” the preliminary injunction that is being appealed. The attorneys for the board members and the alumni association have 10 days to respond to the motion.

In the motion to suspend or modify the preliminary injunction, the General Synod asks for the preliminary injunction to be “vacated, or modified to remove constitutionally offensive provisions.”

The document claims the preliminary injunction should be vacated or modified to “remove vague and ambiguous provisions.”

Lastly, the action asks for the preliminary injunction to be vacated for “failure to provide the required bond or suspended until the required bond is posted.”

RICK HENDRICKS is director of marketing and public relations for Erskine College,

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