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Judge: Property stays when breakaway congregation goes


From NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>
Date 27 Mar 2000 12:19:45

March 27, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-21-31-71B{168}

By Dean Snyder*

A Circuit Court judge in Maryland has ruled that $38 million worth of
disputed church property belongs to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church rather than to a Temple Hill congregation that broke away from the
denomination.

The March 22 ruling prevents From the Heart Ministries led by the Rev. John
Cherry, who left the AME Zion Church and took most of his congregation with
him in July, from keeping the property acquired by his congregation while it
was affiliated with the denomination.

Judge Allen E. Shepherd, of Prince George's County Circuit Court, stated in
his ruling that  "property acquired by the local church must remain with the
denomination." 

The judge's decision is significant for United Methodists because it upholds
denominational trust clauses that prevent congregations from taking their
buildings with them if they leave the denomination, according to Tom
Starnes, a United Methodist lawyer who served as legal counsel to the AME
Zion Church.

Starnes also consulted with Mary Logan, general counsel of the General
Council of Finance and Administration of the United Methodist Church, on
trust clause matters.

"The AME Zion Church Book of Discipline includes a trust clause that is very
similar to the trust clause in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, and
the judge was correct in upholding the trust clause in favor of the
denomination," Logan said.

A court decision upholding one Methodist denomination's rights reinforces
the validity of others' clauses, Starnes said. 

The United Methodist trust clause, like the AME Zion clause, states that
congregations cannot take local church assets from the denomination if
either of the following conditions applies: 1) a congregation has accepted a
bishop's appointment or 2) the congregation has used the name, customs and
polity of the denomination in such a way as to be known in the community as
being a part of the denomination. 

While only one of the two conditions is necessary for the trust clause to
apply, both were true in the case of the Temple Hill AME Zion congregation,
according to Starnes.

^From the Heart Ministry's lawyers argued that in Maryland, denominational
trust clauses must state explicitly that property is to revert back to the
denomination if a congregation leaves. The judge ruled instead that the
denomination's interest is protected by a "simple trust clause," Starnes
said.

"There was absolutely no dispute about the facts of the case," Starnes said.
"The question was purely a legal one. Is that trust clause adequate to
protect the interests of the denomination? ... Is the trust clause good
enough?" 

Logan praised the decision of the trial court judge, saying that it is
"sound and what we would expect in a case like this where a runaway group in
a hierarchical church inappropriately wants to take the property and run."
She also lauded Starnes, whom she said is an outstanding lawyer who "has
done just an incredible job on this case." 

Some similarities exist between the situation of the AME Zion church and
Resurrection Prayer Worship Center United Methodist Church in Brandywine,
Md. Both were African-American congregations in Prince George's County. Like
^From the Heart Ministry, Resurrection Prayer Worship Center had grown
dramatically under the leadership of the senior pastor. Both pastors left
their denominations and took many of the members with them. Both
congregations have members who have chosen to remain within their
denominations and to continue to conduct worship as AME Zion and United
Methodist churches. 

A major difference exists in their financial pictures.  Cherry tried to take
buildings and assets worth millions with him.  When the Rev. C. Anthony Muse
broke away from the United Methodist Church in 1999 after 15 years at
Resurrection Prayer Worship Center, he and the members who went with him
left behind an unfinished building with an estimated $6 million debt.
Retired Bishop Forrest C. Stith is serving the members of the Brandywine
congregation who remained in the United Methodist Church.

^From the Heart Ministry's lawyers are challenging Shepherd's ruling in the
Maryland Court of Appeals. Starnes expects the state court to take six
months to a year to issue its verdict. Until then, the lawyers have
negotiated an agreement that allows both the breakaway congregation and the
members of the church who remain loyal to the denomination to meet in
separate buildings on the church's property. 

# # #

* Snyder is editor of UMConnection, the newspaper of the United Methodist
Church's Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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