Settlement Allows Presbyterian Church to Leave Denomination
By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Thu, Apr. 17 2008 10
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. the rest
posted by Pat Dague @ 1:12 PM
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1 Comments:
As an update on this, Memorial Park Church held a "Jubilee" celebration on the first sunday in June 2008 to commemorate the June 2007 vote to leave the denomination. The true purpose of Jubilee Sunday was to collect money to pay off the settlement and legal bills. Every "family" took turns going to the front of the church to drop cash in a box while everyone watched. I found this in very bad taste. They had people walk up front to see who had donated and who had not as intimidation to get money. They collected over $600,000 to pay off legal fees and settlement money in 1 sunday. With this "Jubilee" collection of money - actual cost to the church was $0. This is why Pittsburgh Presbytery wanted 1.7 million dollars; they knew the church could afford it. They celebrated the following Sunday with clapping and shouting, not in praise of God but about money. I suspect this was all planned in advance to find a way to use a wealthy church culture to get people to come to Jubilee and then give money once they were there, pew by pew. No one would want to be seen sitting in the pew while others went up with green. I chose not to go up to the front.
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