News

Presbyterians settle split for $600,000

Vision of Christ by Sam Elliott is one of several paintings Hendersonville Presbyterian Church will auction on Sunday.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 30, 2017

The congregation of the former First Presbyterian Church, which voted to leave the Presbyterian Church USA denomination in June 2013, and church members that voted to remain with PCUSA have reached a property settlement that allows the departing congregation to keep the church building in exchange for a payment of $600,000.

After the governing body of the PC-USA churches in Western North Carolina unanimously approved the settlement, both congregations unanimously approved the terms on April 26.
Members of then-First Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville voted in June 2013 to ask to be dismissed from PCUSA by an 81 to 19 percent margin after long-running conflict over larger church politics and rules changes by the governing General Assembly. Governing rules of PC-USA required a 75 percent majority to grant the dismissal.
The minority then split from the larger church, remaining with the denomination and keeping the name First Presbyterian Church.

That church, which meets at 610 Yarborough St., installed the Rev. Dr. Kathryn Johnson Cameron as its first full-time minister on May 21. A graduate of A.C. Reynolds High School, Cameron attended Warren Wilson College and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, Yale Divinity School, Union/PSCE, and Columbia Theological Seminary. Ordained in 1982 at First Presbyterian Church in New Haven, Connecticut, Cameron previously served as associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Greenwich, Conn., and First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro.

The June 2013 split required Hendersonville Presbyterian Church and the remaining First Presbyterian Church congregation to negotiate an agreement on disposition of the property, which covers a city block bounded by Seventh and Sixth avenues and North Grove and King streets. In August 2014 the Administrative Commission of the Presbytery ruled that the remaining PC-USA-affiliated congregation "is the true church" according to the denomination's Book of Order and "thus is entitled to the church's property." After challenges, the ruling was ultimately upheld by PC-USA's highest governing body, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly.
Last month, the two churches reached an agreement requiring Hendersonville Presbyterian Church to pay $600,000 to the continuing congregation and to return a number of items requested by continuing church members, many of whom had generations-long ties to the church. Hendersonville Presbyterian Church keeps the 699 N. Grove St. property.

Terms require that Hendersonville Presbyterian Church pay $100,000 by July 1 and the balance in 10 installments of $50,000 each over the next 10 years.
The governing body of Hendersonville Presbyterian Church agreed that it would affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church after the PC-USA dismissed the congregation.

When the settlement was announced, the church held a meeting to announce a fundraising program to raise the $100,000 installment due July 1.

Sam Elliott“Our church officers suggested that it would be good if we didn’t take 10 years to get the full sum paid and pledges and gifts began to come in immediately,” the Rev. Bill Campbell, minister of the church, said in a news release. “One of the most creative and inspired means of raising funds came about when one of our Deacons, Sam Elliott, acknowledged to all of us who have known him at least for the past five years, that he had been quiet about his life as an accomplished artist, sculptor and poet. He offered to give the church the right to reproduce three of his beautiful paintings, and he would sign and number them for those making qualifying donations. We had no idea he had that kind of gift— and a reputation to go with it—but when he presented the church with framed reproductions to publicize his offer, we were amazed. They are incredibly beautiful! He and his wife, Marcia, continue to organize and participate in signings for our congregation’s donors.”

Elliott’s work will be exhibited on Sunday, June 11, at an Ice Cream Social drop-in from 2 to 4 p.m.
The church will hold a silent auction for three 24x32 framed reproductions on canvas. The starting bid on each of these will be $750. At 3:30 the current highest bids will be announced and bidding will continue until 3:45 when the final successful bidders will be announced.