wfn.org | California-Nevada church declared abandoned, assets frozen

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 3, 1998      Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.          {459}
  

By Charley Lerrigo*

The United Methodist congregation in Kingsburg, Calif., which has left
the denomination, has had its building declared "abandoned" by the
church's California-Nevada Annual Conference and its assets frozen.

The conference's board of trustees and Kingsburg congregational leaders
are working to resolve issues around the former United Methodist
church's property, but several important questions remain.  

The conference has asked for the return of the deeds and assets, a
request that had not been met as of July 31. 

On June 28, about 200 members of the Kingsburg United Methodist Church
voted to withdraw
their memberships from the denomination. Most are believed to have
become members of a new congregation called Kingsburg Community Church.
The new church is occupying the United Methodist building under a lease
that conference trustees do not recognize as legally binding.  Community
Church leaders and supporters have strongly criticized the freezing of
assets, but conference officials say they are following procedures
spelled out in the denomination's rule book, the Book of Discipline. 

After the congregation voted to leave the denomination, Fresno District
Superintendent Rick Plain wrote letters to all members  of the Kingsburg
church in order to determine how many were interested in remaining
United Methodists. Only two responded affirmatively. Nine retained their
membership in order to complete their duties as trustees.

The Book of Discipline  (Paragraph 2548.3) states: "When a local church
property is no longer used, kept, or maintained by its membership as a
place of divine worship, the property shall be considered abandoned, and
when a local church no longer serves the purpose for which it was
organized and incorporated ... with the consent of the presiding bishop,
a majority of the
district superintendents, and of the district board of church location
and building, the annual conference trustees may assume control of the
property."  

All parties agreed July 15 that the Kingsburg United Methodist Church
was abandoned. The next day, Diane Knudsen, conference treasurer and
staff person for the conference board of trustees, wrote a letter to the
bank used by the Kingsburg United Methodist Church explaining the
abandonment procedure and requesting that all accounts in the name of
the church be frozen.  The bank granted the request.

On July 23, representatives of the conference trustees met with
representatives of Kingsburg Community Church and the trustees of the
former Kingsburg United Methodist Church to resolve property issues.
Papers to dissolve the corporation and formally deed the property to the
conference were left with the trustees of the former Kingsburg United
Methodist Church.  

In a July 22 letter, Walter Engstrom, president of the local trustees,
asked for "several days" to review the documents. "None of us wants to
withhold any action we are legally obligated to take, but by the same
token, we don't want to act precipitously."

The conference trustees are prepared to take legal action if the deeds
are not acted upon soon, Knudsen said.

At the July 23 meeting, Kingsburg Community Church representatives said
they wanted to buy the church property from the conference. The
conference trustees began negotiations, but no agreements were reached.

The conference trustees are awaiting both an appraisal on the property
and either a written purchase offer from the new Kingsburg congregation
or a signed six-month lease. If a purchase order is received, it will be
presented to the full board of trustees as soon as a quorum can be
gathered and all appraisal and other marketing information is available.

Kingsburg Community Church, which claims 325 members, currently occupies
the church building under terms of a July 1 lease with Kingsburg United
Methodist Church. The terms of the lease are $10 a month, plus the
expenses of maintaining the building. The lease was for 364 days, one
day less than would have required a district superintendent's approval.

The conference trustees do not recognize the lease as legally binding,
but they are withholding legal action pending the outcome of
negotiations. Ed Ezaki, who turned in his credentials as a United
Methodist clergyman July 15, is pastor of the new community church. He
estimated that keeping the church open costs about $800 a month.

Superintendent Plain emphasized the need to work through the process a
step at a time but that the Book of Discipline, "its provisions and its
processes will be upheld. What happens with Kingsburg will also help us
learn and gain some wisdom for the future, too," Plain wrote.

In a column written before the abandonment of the Kingsburg church,
Plain also observed: "Not all that is going on in our life together is
merely an issue between a group of pastors or local churches and the
(conference) ministry staff.  It is a matter of the covenant community
of all pastors who are members of the annual conference...and the
connection of the local congregations with one another in the basic unit
of United Methodism -- the annual conference."

In documents distributed throughout the denomination, Ezaki said the
annual conference "stole the collection plate" of Kingsburg church when
it froze about $14,000 in assets held by the former United Methodist
congregation.

"The California-Nevada Annual Conference is a top-down aristocracy where
the things that really matter are power and money," Ezaki wrote.

Ezaki said negotiations with the conference have reached the point that
"an unknown sum of money . . . will make the whole issue go away." 

In his report of the negotiations, Ezaki declined to specify what dollar
figures had been mentioned, but wrote: "I can tell you that I thought
the amounts were less than market value between willing buyers and
sellers. However, the amount the conference wants is pretty far from
what the (Community church) can or will pay . . . (the) conference does
not want to give us any
moral ownership of any of the property."

The evaluation of the Kingsburg property, reported in the 1997
Conference Journal, was more than $410,000, including  indebtedness of
$150,000.

"The conference has never spent a dime on the buildings in Kingsburg,"
Ezaki wrote. "Yet they believe that they own them. This is an evil
system or maybe a system being used in an evil way." 

Conference officials have declined comment on the amounts involved, but
they do hold to the  denominational position that in the case of an
abandoned property, all assets belong to the conference.

Ezaki said he has not been ordained elsewhere since surrendering his
United Methodist clergy credentials. In a July 30 interview, Ezaki said
his surrender of United Methodist credentials "doesn't make much
difference in preaching the word of God, which is primarily what I do."

# # #

*Lerrigo is editor of the California-Nevada United Methodist Review.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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