Settlement Allows Presbyterian Church to Leave Denomination

The Pittsburgh Presbytery and a large breakaway congregation reached a settlement that will allow the church to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) along with its property.

Memorial Park Presbyterian Church, formerly Pittsburgh Presbytery's largest church, is to become the sole owner of their $7 million property on Thursday, when presbytery officials are expected to approve a $575,000 out-of-court settlement. The approval also dismisses Memorial Park to the smaller and more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church denomination.

"Pittsburgh Presbytery wants to put this matter behind us so we can focus our full energies on Christ's mission in Allegheny County," said the Rev. Doug Portz, acting pastor to the presbytery, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Divisions within the church are indications of our brokenness and our need for Christ's healing."

The split was about seven years in the making.

Conflict arose when PC(USA) General Assembly would not affirm singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ during the summer of 2001.

"The catalyst all along has not been homosexuality and homosexual ordination," the Rev. Dr. D. Dean Weaver, senior pastor of Memorial Park, explained earlier. "The issue all along has been who is Jesus and what the Church believes and what the Bible is – the real bedrock foundational issues of the faith."

Memorial Park church members overwhelmingly voted last June to seek peaceful dismissal from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) over the denomination's departure from traditional doctrines concerning the Holy Trinity, salvation and the authority of the Bible.

Negotiations to allow Memorial Park to leave with its property, however, never got anywhere, according to Weaver. The church offered $500,000 in September to obtain ownership but the presbytery was asking for $1.2 million.

When no amicable resolution was reached months later, Memorial Park leaders voted in January to file suit, disaffiliate from the national church and realign with Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

"Our church leadership felt we needed some way to move this to its conclusion, so we filed a civil suit," said Jim Belliveau, clerk of session and a church elder at Memorial Park, as reported by Pittsburgh Tribune Review. "The issue is over property, not doctrine or theology, and civil court is the appropriate place where the case should be heard."

The settlement this week "sets no precedent in dealing with such situations," the Pittsburgh Presbytery stressed in a statement.

Memorial Park is the second in Allegheny County to leave PC(USA), following Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church, which was dismissed in October.