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California courts uphold PC(USA) Constitution on church property issues

August 16, 2006

Media Inquiries: contact Mary Pace

GAC Office of Communication

(502) 569-5490

Mark Tammen

Constitutional Services

Office of the General Assembly

(502) 569-5433

George S. Burns

Legal Counsel for Presbytery of Hanmi, Synod

 of Southern California & Hawaii, and

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

(949) 263-6777

California courts uphold PC(USA) Constitution on church property issues

Three cases tried or settled, fourth expected soon

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, has recently issued a series of decisions that consistently hold that the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) prevents factions of local congregations from seizing church assets and harassing the faction of the congregation which remains loyal to PC(USA).

Recently, the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, Hanmi Presbytery and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been named as parties to lawsuits in the Los Angeles Superior Court involving particular churches that were in schism. Another was filed against the Presbytery of the Pacific, also within the synod. Those lawsuits involved Korean Hope Christian Church, Serone Church, Torrance First Presbyterian Church and Bethany United Presbyterian Church. 

In each of those cases, congregations split into factions over selection and other issues concerning their pastor. After one side appealed to the presbytery or synod, the other faction unilaterally declared that the particular church had quit the denomination, and asserted control and ownership of all church property and funds, to the exclusion of both the other faction and the presbytery.

In all these cases, the courts have ruled that the dissident faction must follow the directions of the presbytery as to control or ownership of the church property. 

"The courts applied the rules from our Book of Order which is part of the PC(USA) Constitution.  The Presbyterian Church (USA) has clear processes based on its theology, said Mark Tammen, director of Constitutional Services, Office of the General Assembly, PC(USA).

"As such, the Constitution entrusts presbyteries with determining their 'strategy for mission' in their bounds. This is the 'yardstick' for making such decisions.  Obviously secular judges would have difficulty in making such a theologically based determination, and in fact, are prohibited from doing so by well established U.S. Supreme Court precedent," Tammen added.

PC(USA) sexual standards must be required, Gagnon tells New Wineskins

TULSA -- Some say that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has historically permitted freedom of conscience within certain bounds.

But the presbyteries never intended the denomination's ordination standards regarding sexual behavior to be anything but required and compulsory, contends Robert Gagnon, a New Testament professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Those standards -- which limit ordination to those who practice fidelity if they're married or chastity if they are single -- should mean the PC(USA) won't ordain sexually active gays and lesbians, and will not countenance what Gagnon calls "serial unrepentant sexual immorality."

Robert Gagnon

Apostolic, Catholic, Holy: The Post-Christendom Church

Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part series. An enlarged version of this and the two articles to follow may be found in the booklet, Bearing the Marks of the Church, published by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Theology and Worship.  Also available online at the Re-forming Ministry website: https://www.pcusa.org/re-formingministry/papers/nicene_marks.pdf

The issue that is either openly addressed or subtly at work in all our discussions about a denomination like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the fact that Christendom is over. "Christendom" is the partnership of church, state, and society initiated in the fourth century under the Emperor Constantine. Wherever one is located on the theological or ecclesial spectrum, the end of Christendom is the common ground that links us together. 

How will we, within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), work with this contextual change in which we find ourselves today? Can we understand that the end of Christendom is a way for us to begin to reassess the western theological tradition from the liberating perspective of the actual and unquestioned end of Christendom? 

Church groups demand Lebanon-Israel cease-fire to deal with crisis

(PNS/ENS) -- Church relief agencies were pleading July 25 for an urgent cease-fire so emergency assistance can be provided to hundreds of thousands of civilians uprooted and threatened by Israeli bombarding of Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel. 

PC(USA) mission personnel, partners in Middle East reported safe

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission workers and ecumenical partners in the Middle East have not suffered physical harm from the violence that is gripping Lebanon and Israel.

"All our mission workers, partners and other colleagues are reported safe," said Victor Makari, the PC(USA)'s area coordinator for the Middle East, on July 18. "This includes pastors in southern Lebanon very close to the border with Israel. All our colleagues (in Lebanon) are stuck in their homes, some sleeping in hallways away from windows and outside walls."

The violence between Israel and Hezbollah, which began July 12, has claimed the lives of 210 Lebanese and 24 Israelis as of July 18, according to media reports.

Nuhad Tomeh, a PC(USA) mission worker in Lebanon, was in the United States when the fighting broke out and was scheduled to remain through the end of  July. Tomeh serves with the Middle East Council of Churches and is the PC(USA)'s regional liaison for Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Gulf region.

Presbyterian work in Lebanon dates back to the 19th century and the PC(USA) continues close ties to its partner church in the nation, National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. The denomination also maintains partnerships in Lebanon with the Lebanese American University of Beirut (which it founded) and the Near East School of Theology (NEST). The PC(USA), along with the Reformed Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church, supports the mission service of Jon Hoover, a professor who teaches at NEST. He serves in Lebanon with his wife, Jacqueline.

The PC(USA)'s Jinishian Memorial Program, an endowed relief and development program that serves Armenian communities in several countries overseas,  works in the Armenian Quarter of Beirut. Its entire staff is safe, Makari said.

Makari reported that conditions are calm in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where four PC(USA) mission workers and others related to the PC(USA) serve. The denomination's seven mission personnel assigned to Egypt are also safe, he said.

Middle Eastern Caucus issues statement on “terroristic activities”

In response to the latest wave of violence in the Middle East, The National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus issued a statement calling for 'all illegal and terroristic activities on all sides come to an abrupt and final end ... an end to Israel's occupation as the first real step toward a genuine peace in the region ... [and] to base US foreign policy on the legal and moral values that our nation and constitution are founded on.'

The complete text follows.

BOP Medical Plan dues up .5% effective Jan. 1; costs cited

(PNS) With health care costs continuing to rise annually by nearly 10 percent, the Board of Pensions (BOP) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to raise its Medical Plan dues by one-half percent, to 19.5 percent of "effective salary."

The increase, which brings total dues for medical plus pension benefits to 31.5 percent, is effective Jan. 1, 2007. The board approved the increase at its July 13-15, along with subscription increases in related health care programs, such as the Affiliated Benefits Plan (an 8.8 percent increase) and medical coverage for seminary students (an increase commensurate with the Medical Plan dues increase).

Christian groups press for Middle East ceasefire

(RNS) As Middle East hostilities entered its second week, mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders around the world continued to press the combatants --and the Bush administration -- for an immediate cease-fire.

On July 24, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches called for "an immediate cessation of violent acts by all parties," and said the first step "is for all acts of violence to end immediately." In a July 21 letter to Bush, signed by more than a dozen Roman Catholic and Protestant groups including the National Council of Churches, Churches for Middle East Peace told the president his leadership "and the full weight of the Untied States, acting in concert with the international community, must be applied now to achieve an immediate cease-fire and to launch an intensive diplomatic initiative for the cessation of hostilities.

"This is a necessary first step toward the diplomatic resolution of this crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the way toward a comprehensive Middle East peace," the letter to Bush said.

Adair named PFF associate director

W. Andrew Adair, who has been working as a mission co-worker for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Asia, has been named associate director for mission sending of the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and The Outreach Foundation. He will lead their new effort to fund and send their own missionaries.

Since 1997, Adair and his wife, Teri, have worked in Asia, where he has helped direct a partnership involving workers from close to a dozen countries and a variety of agencies. Before that, he worked as mission pastor for Highland Church in Dallas.

Adair, a former investment banker, earned a master's in divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. He will be based in Houston.

PC(USA) fires Golliher; Embezzlement charged

LOUISVILLE -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has fired its associate director for finance and accounting, Judy Golliher, after discovering that she has embezzled at least $102,000 from the church.

The theft has been reported to the Jefferson County Commonwealth Attorney's office and criminal prosecution is being considered.

“Fear of the different other” explored by YWCA executive at PWC meeting

LOUISVILLE -- Musimbi Kanyora, a native of Kenya, lives in Geneva, Switzerland now -- she's general secretary of the World YWCA. So she thinks of the challenges of diversity with a global view, not an American one

Kanyora has seen what she calls "the growing fear of the different other," and says that racism has sometimes made her fear she could be attacked as she walks along a street in Europe. She sees how vulnerable many Muslims in Western countries feel.

And Kanyora, speaking July 8 at the 2006 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women, held up her arm to display three wristbands: three brightly-colored reminders of how the economic diversity of have and have-not plays out in the world.

Presbyterian Women celebrates history, explores present needs, future service

LOUISVILLE -- Trying to get one's arms around the 2006 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women is like trying to grab hold of a river dashing down a hillside -- there's too much at once, and always more coming.

The Gathering -- held July 7 to 11 in Louisville -- brings together about 3,000 Presbyterian women from around the United States and also more than 80 global partners, who come to share stories of the faith and work of women from their countries.

It is partly a celebration of Presbyterian Women's long history of hard work on behalf of mission -- a recognition of the strength and service women have brought to Presbyterian congregations through the generations.

Hope of the Church: Conference looks ahead

David Dobler addresses crowd at Montreat conference.

A once-in-a-lifetime gathering of seminary presidents and former moderators brought their impressive brain power and experience together to discern where to go from here now that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly has approved the recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church.

About 270 participants came to meet with 10 seminary presidents (or their representatives) and 16 former moderators at Montreat, NC, to plan for the future. The majority of leaders represented a moderate or left-of-moderate viewpoint. The participants ranged from conservative to moderate to liberal. Missing were the very conservative and the very liberal voices. Also missing, at least from the podium, was the denomination's stated clerk or a representative from his office.