Pittsburgh Presbyterian Church Gets Injunction; Holds Disaffiliation Vote

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.)