When a local church participates in, prospers from and enjoys the benefits afforded by the parent church it cannot then disclaim affiliation when it disagrees with the parent body, so as to shield church property from the equitable or contractual interests of the parent church. The court affirmed the concept that individuals may leave the church but they cannot take the church property with them.
— Craig Hoster, the presbytery’s attorney in the case
Presbyterian News Service, September 11, 2008:
An Oklahoma district court in Tulsa has ruled that the Presbytery of Eastern Oklahoma of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the legal owner of the property of breakaway Kirk of the Hills, a 2,600-member congregation that bolted to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in August 2006.
In his Sept. 9 ruling, Judge Jefferson Sellers denied Kirk of the Hills petition for a summary judgment and ordered the church to “convey its real and personal property” to the presbytery, as per the decision of the presbytery’s administrative commission, which concluded in March 2007 that Kirk of the Hills was “in schism.”
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The court followed the “hierarchical deference” approach in awarding the property to the presbytery, affirming the trust clause in the PC(USA) Constitution, which holds that all property is held in trust for the denomination. Oklahoma has been considered a “hierarchical deference jurisdiction since an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling in 1973 involving Cimarron Presbytery and Westminster Presbyterian Church of Enid, OK.
Dean Luthey, an attorney for the PC(USA), said hierarchical deference means that in property disputes involving churches, the state court will defer to the decision of the church’s legal system.
Craig Hoster, the presbytery’s attorney in the case, said, “The court followed Oklahoma law. When a local church participates in, prospers from and enjoys the benefits afforded by the parent church, as has been the case here for more than 40 years, it cannot then disclaim affiliation when it disagrees with the parent body, so as to shield church property from the equitable or contractual interests of the parent church….The court affirmed the concept that individuals may leave the church but they cannot take the church property with them.”
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The ruling is the latest in a series in several states that support the claims of hierarchical denominations that their polity is intrinsic to their theology, and property is not owned by individual congregations. The prominent exception is in Virginia where the Diocese of Virginia has said it will appeal the constitutionality of a Reconstruction era “division statute.”