The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-07-01
CHURCH ROW
FINALLY SETTLED
The Supreme Court Of the State Up
Holds the Union Of Churches
at Wagner.

Oklahoma City, July 1.-The right
OF civil court to assume jurisdiction
over an ecclesiastical court and to
pass upon The powers of the latter
when a question of property rights is
involved is upheld in an opinion hand
ed down Monday by division No. l,
supreme court commission, in the suit
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church
at Wagner against the First Presby-
terian church of the United States at
Wagner TO recover possession of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church prop
erty at Wagner.
AS set out in the opinion, written by
Judge c. B. Ames, the case involves
the validity of the proceedings by
which the union of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church and the First
Presbyterian church of the United
States of America was sought to be
accomplished The proceedings have
been the subject of litigation which
has been conducted to final conclu-
sions in ten states, eight of which
have sustained the union while two
have held it to be invalid.
The appeal is brought up from the
district court of Wagner county in
which judgment was rendered for the
Cumberland Presbyterian church
In reviewing the plans for the union
of the two churches, the trustees of
the Cumberland church objected to
them on the ground that their effect
was to annilihate that church and that
the general assembly and Presbyteries
of that church did not have the power
to destroy the church, and second,
that there is such conflict in the
doctrines of the two churches that it
was unlawful for the controlling bodies
OF the Cumberland church to convert
its property TO the propagation of the
doctrines of the Presbyterian church
and third, that the procedure required
by the constitution of the Cumberland
church was not followed and there
fore that the plan of the union sought
to be accomplished was void
Hame Same Standing.
The report of the general assem-
blies of the two churches which re-
suited in the plan of union did not
contemplate the total extinction of the
Cumberland church, Judge Ames holds
and the fact that the ministers and
churches of the Cumberland church
were admitted to the same standing in
the united church and that the official
records of the Cumberland church
were preserved in connection with the
official records of the Presbyterian
church, as making up the history of
one body, further shows that it was
not the idea to do away with the
Cumberland church
AS to the property of the Cumber-
land church, resolutions were adopted
in the general assembly of that body
in which it was provided that ''in
uniting with the Presbyterian church
in the United States of America, the
Cumberland church does not ALLEVIATE
the property now held for particular
congregations of the Cumberland Pres
byterian church but that in the re-
united church such property will be
continued to be held for the use and
benefit of particular congregations in
like manner as heretofore"
The effect of this resolution, Judge
Ames holds, was to leave the individ-
ual congregation of the Cumberland
church in the possession of its property
and of all its civil rights.
AS to doctrinal differences between
the two churches which might prevent
a proper union, the opinion holds that
that was matter to which the gen.
eral assemblies of the two churches
had given the study of lifetime and