SC church sues to clarify land ownership.

The Island Packet Newspaper story covers a lawsuit by Providence Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina against Charleston Atlantic Presbytery. They also are unhappy with PC(USA):

• the top-down bureaucracy
• some theological issues
• cut their missionaries down to almost nothing

Their website shows they may support more mission work than PC(USA). (ok, slight exaggeration, but impressive mission work.) The Church is listed of having 787 members and contributions of 1,280,773 as of Dec 2006. They were founded September 7, 1986 with 127 members. Their website states they have 668 active members. They are aligned with The Confessing Church Movement. Providence is a member congregation of the New Wineskins Association of Churches.

It is interesting that the article has two lines next to each other on property:

On the land subject, PCUSA doctrine states that church properties belong to the denomination.

and

"That's what you agree to when you practice Presbyterianism," said Jimmy Stuckey, an attorney for the Charleston presbytery.

The first line says it is only doctrine, the second that it applies to ALL Presbyterians, not just PCUSA. Hopefully the lawyer misspoke or was misquoted. That is not EPC doctrine, it was not doctrine until the merger for many churches.

Providence Presbyterian Church 171 Cordillo Parkway Hilton Head Island SC 29928