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Pittsburgh Presbyterian Church Gets Injunction; Holds Disaffiliation Vote

By Howard Friedman

Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that last Wednesday, Pittsburgh's Memorial Park Presbyterian Church obtained a temporary injunction from a Pennsylvania trial judge, barring the Pittsburgh Presbytery from interfering with a planned meeting of church members. At the meeting this week end, church members voted overwhelmingly to disaffiliate from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and affiliate instead with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. A Presbytery-appointed administrative commission had written the church forbidding the meeting, but on Thursday at a court hearing the Presbytery withdrew its opposition to the injunction when church officials agreed not to take any action to dispose of church assets. Earlier this month, the church filed a separate lawsuit seeking to confirm its title to church property and prevent seizure of its buildings by the Presbytery after negotiations with the Presbytery broke down. (Church letter announcing lawsuit.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 21, 2008 (boomark / email).