The Providence Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head Island filed a civil suit last Friday against the regional branch of its denomination in an effort to prove ownership of two island properties.<\/p>\n
While the church has butted heads over theological issues with its denomination — the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), or PCUSA — a local church leader stressed that the suit, filed at the Beaufort County Courthouse, was strictly about ownership of the two properties.<\/p>\n
The church has almost 26.5 acres of land, roughly 16 of it undeveloped, and Paul Cifaldi, an elder at the church, said the congregation wants to ensure it won’t be taken away by the regional arm of the church and the defendant in the suit, the Charleston Atlantic Presbytery.<\/p>\n
“We’re just asking the court to let us know that it really is in fact our property, as we develop it and invest money in it in the future,” Cifaldi said.<\/p>\n
That future, he acknowledged, is far from certain for the local church, which has been increasingly unhappy with the direction of national church over the last two decades.<\/p>\n