Stealing A Church; Ending a Tradition

Stealing A Church; Ending a Tradition

    

    Bishop Cynthia Fiero Harvey of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has notified the congregation of the Joaquin Methodist Church that it is seizing their church building and all their property, and will be offering these for sale to the highest bidder. 

    The original property for the Joaquin Methodist Church

was purchased by the congregation in 1904 with deed issued and filed in 1905.  Members donated additional properties to the church in 1944, 1962, and 1980.

    In 1905, the congregation built a frame church building on the property, which they used for services for almost 50 years. In 1951 members of the congregation tore down the wood building and with their own hands built the brick building where they have worshiped for the past 73 years.

    In total, the Methodist Church of Joaquin has occupied the property at 105 Faulkville St. for, 120 years. As a Congregation, the Methodist Church of Joaquin is at least 148 years old, having been chartered in 1876. However, their history traces back to the earliest days of Anglo settlement of East Texas when Circuit Riding Methodist Ministers broke Mexican law and held services on the bluff above the Sabine River where the Brookland Cemetery now stands. In a brush arbor at that location, Texas Methodists worshiped as early as 1825, almost 200 years ago. Thus, the Methodist tradition in Joaquin is 11 years older than the Republic of Texas, and 20 years older than the State. In fact, the recognized oldest Methodist Congregation in Texas. at Pecan Point, dates to 1822, only three years earlier. The Methodist congregation is the oldest in Joaquin.

    For the first 92 years after its was chartered, the Joaquin Methodist Church operated as a local church, but in 1968, when the United Methodist Church Conference was formed, the local church joined the Conference and became the Joaquin United Methodist Church.

    The claim of the Texas Conference to ownership of the local church property and buildings dates to a 2016 action by the Conference. Nine years ago the United Methodist Church Conference decided to place all real property of all the member churches under the ownership of the Conference. The local churches were only to hold their property “in trust” for the United Methodist Conference. This action apparently did not require signatures from local church officials nor any transfer of deeds or titles. Titles and deeds to the Joaquin Methodist Church are still filed with Shelby county as belonging to the local church.

    This fall, the Joaquin United Methodist Church differed with Conference policies with respect to acceptance of LGBTQ ministers, and withdrew from the Conference, again becoming a local Methodist Church. The Conference then notified the local church that they would seize the church and all its property and offer these for sale in November of 2024.  To back their claim, the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has sent the Joaquin congregation a copy of Chapter Six of the rules of the

United Methodist Church which state that the Conference has taken all real property of all the local congregations, but permits the local congregations to hold the property “in trust” for the Conference. No information is provided as to when or how the local congregation agreed to, or assigned their real property to this trust. No signatures on trust agreements nor any transfer of deeds or titles were provided; nor are any to be found among the records of the local congregation.

    The controversy is compounded by the fact that the pastor of the Joaquin Methodist Church, Bro. Robert Ortigo, passed away in the fall of 2024 after a five year battle with cancer. The congregation had not received guidance or even information from the Conference for two years prior to their taking action to withdraw.

    It is unclear whether the little local congregation will have the resources to fight the seizure and sale of their property by the Bishop of the Texas Conference. This may well mark the end of a chapter in the religious history of East Texas, as a Methodist tradition of two centuries is ended by actions of a Methodist Conference.