Mainline Presbyterian Members Win Lawsuit Over Control of Overland Park Church
The rest of this story is that the fundamentalist groups forming these schisms and trying to take whole churches are sometimes backed by legal groups and funding from foundations that trace back to the reclusive reconstructionist billionaire, Howard Ahmanson.
In 2014, the 1,200-member congregation at 148th Street and Antioch Road went through a painful schism that split the church and friendships, and led to a lawsuit.
At root were issues of both theology and property. The congregation’s more conservative, evangelical members, including the congregation’s senior pastor, Eric Laverentz, voted in October to disaffiliate themselves from the Presbyterian Church USA because they believed the mainline church had long been veering from what conservative members deemed to be the faith’s Bible-based mandates. The bulk of the congregation joined in, choosing to affiliate with a different denomination, ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
Such schisms have become increasingly common in the Presbyterian Church, especially since 2011, when the mainline Presbyterian Church USA changed its rules to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy.
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