A $575,000 settlement reached this week by the Pittsburgh Presbytery and Memorial Park Presbyterian Church will enable the McCandless church to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) with its buildings, property and name.
The settlement is expected to be approved today at the presbytery's meeting at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
The settlement and approval mean the presbytery dismisses Memorial Park to the more biblically conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Memorial Park, one of the presbytery's largest churches, will be the second in Allegheny County to leave PCUSA, following Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church, which was dismissed in October.
"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.
"Divisions within the church are indications of our brokenness and our need for Christ's healing."
For Memorial Park, the settlement ends a seven-year effort to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA). That accelerated in June when members voted 951-93 to seek dismissal from the national church, believing it had strayed from biblical authority.
The church initially offered the presbytery a $360,000 "mission gift" to seal its dismissal, but the presbytery demanded $1.7 million. In September, the church offered $1.2 million as its final offer.
In January, Memorial Park filed suit in Common Pleas Court seeking to confirm its title to its 71/2-acre property on Peebles Road and avoid any threat of seizure of its buildings by the presbytery. Members also voted 664-25 to disaffiliate from PCUSA and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which has about 70,000 members in 175 churches in 29 states.
Several weeks later, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. brought attorneys and principals from both sides together and suggested the $575,000 settlement figure, telling them a protracted suit could result in three times that sum in fees and costs.
More importantly, church policy holds that property is held in trust for the Presbyterian Church (USA). However, if the suit went to trial the case would be decided under Pennsylvania law, and, according to the presbytery, "the laws of Pennsylvania are not absolute on this matter."
The Memorial Park congregation approved the settlement Sunday. The 64-year-old church has 1,675 members.
Its effort to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) began in April 1991 when it joined the denomination's Confessing Church movement, so named for its affirmations of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the inerrancy of the Bible for theology and policy, and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.
In a statement, the presbytery stressed that the Memorial Park agreement "sets no precedent in dealing with such [similar] situations."
The settlement will be paid in two installments: $200,000 upon approval of the agreement and the remaining $375,000 within six months.
The Pittsburgh Presbytery has 155 churches and more than 40,000 members. Presbyterian Church (USA) has more than 10,000 churches in the United States and Puerto Rico.
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