More fundamentally, the new mandate by the Presbytery of Wabash Valley also violates state and federal constitutional guarantees. Just as the state cannot tell a pastor what he must preach, so an ecclesiastical body cannot order a civil corporation to amend the deeds to its property.

Just a few days before Thanksgiving 2010, at a meeting with a lower-than-usual turnout, the Presbytery of Wabash Valley did something startling and unprecedented.

In an effort to create evidence to shore up the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s disputed claim over the control of all local church property, the presbytery overreached its authority and passed a “bylaw” that mandates that all particular churches within its geographic bounds amend their property deeds to add language creating or accepting a trust in favor of the PCUSA.

The effective date of this bylaw is reported to be Jan. 1, 2011, with churches facing adverse consequences if they fail to comply (presumably including the possible appointment of administrative commissions with power to dissolve pastoral relationships and replace sessions)…

This ultimatum by the Presbytery of Wabash Valley should be very troubling to all member churches of the PCUSA for several reasons. For one thing, it appears to violate the constitution of the PCUSA.

According to the PCUSA’s Book of Order, ecclesiastical authority is confined to spiritual matters only and does not extend to temporal matters.

Ecclesiastical oversight “must be purely moral and spiritual in its object, and not attended with any civil effects (G-1.0308) …” G-1.0301(b) states, “We do not even wish to see any religious constitution aided by the civil power …”

Read More: http://www.layman.org/News.aspx?article=27933

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