Greetings,

   The recent church departures in the PC(USA) have hit the national press with a review article from the Washington Post.  I didn't see anything new in the articles, other than the fact that it was in a newspaper from a city that did not currently (to my knowledge and their reporting) have a church looking at leaving.  And the article did not make the distinction about the Los Angeles cases that those are divided congregations not congregations united in departing the PC(USA).

   One other thing different about the article was the large number of quotes from Jerry Van Marter from the PC(USA) news service.  Previous articles have relied mostly on PC(USA) press releases.  However, Jerry does say that "... he could not recall one instance in which the denomination lost a legal dispute with a congregation over church property."  I guess they don't consider the Ridgebury Presbyterian Church case from Orange County, New York, settled yet.

The full article is "Presbyterians fight for custody of the church."