Methodists Address Church Property Issues
The United Methodist Church is reviewing and reconsidering its property clause in light of rising legal challenges from dissenting congregations.
The United Methodist Church is reviewing and reconsidering its property clause in light of rising legal challenges from dissenting congregations.
A newly established panel on property issues, which will be meeting later this month, had decided at a Mar. 17 meeting in Nashville, Tenn., that the property rights of a local congregation can supersede the rights of a denomination – at least in the U.S. civil courts.
Historically the denomination fared well in property dispute cases through the trust clause established by Methodism founder John Wesley. Under the clause, local congregations that break away from the denomination had to yield their property to the denomination.
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However in recent years, breakaway churches have appealed in civil courts and succeeded in maintaining their property. In one of the latest cases, the California State Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that allowed a Fresno Methodist congregation to retain its property in December 2004. Similar rulings have been made in other denominations as well, raising a red flag for the once dominant U.S. mainline churches.
The panel on property issues plans to work for 12 months to develop recommendations for the UMC's General Council of Finance and Administration, including possible changes to Book of Discipline – the church's constitution. Changes to the book will have to be considered by the denomination’s highest legislative assembly, slated for 2008.
"We are in search of strategies to preserve the denomination's property for future generations of United Methodists," said James R. Allen, church counsel, to the United Methodist News Service. "The policies and procedures that were put into place several decades ago to address denominational property and trust concerns need to be revised to account for secular legal and regulatory changes."
The Book of Discipline states currently that all property held at any level of the church is kept in trust for the United Methodist Church. Therefore, the property of local churches – even those paid for by the local congregation – is under denominational ownership.
The panel is addressing both those legal and secular issues as well as the theological and social principle behind property ownership. According to the UMNS, the panel will study the theological meaning of the denomination's role as a steward of the property God has entrusted to it.
The next panel meeting is slated for Apr. 25.
