''Presbyterian Church v. Hull Church'', 393 U.S. 440 (1969), was a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case involving the secession of two local churches, including

Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church Christ Church Anglican (CCA) is an Anglican parish in the Thomas Square neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia. It traces its history to 1733, when Christ Church (Savannah, Georgia), Christ Church was founded as the oldest Anglican presence in Georgi ...

, from the parent body Presbyterian Church in the United States because, they claimed, the Church had departed from its original doctrinal tenets. The Court ruled that the state could not pass judgment concerning religious doctrine or church law.

Background

In 1966 the sessions of two congregations of the Presbyterian Church in the United States voted to secede from the parent organization. They were upset over the parent body's decisions to ordain women, to remain within the

National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC), is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the Un ...

, its position with regard to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and other social issues, its embrace of "neo-orthodox" and alleged denial of the Holy Trinity and certain Sunday School texts. Subsequently the

Presbytery of Savannah Presbytery and presbyterium may refer to: * Presbyterium, a body of ordained, active priests in the Catholic or Anglican churches * Presbytery (architecture), the area of a church building more commonly referred to as the "chancel" or "sanctuary" ...

appointed an Administrative Commission to resolve the dispute. When the two insurgent churches remained intransigent, the Presbytery attempted to take over the seceding churches' properties until new leadership could be found. The seceding churches then filed suit in the Superior Court of Chatham County to enjoin representatives of Presbytery from trespassing on their properties. In response, the denomination moved to dismiss that injunction and filed a cross-injunction on its own behalf claiming that the state had no authority to determine whether the general church had departed from its tenets of faith and practice. The suits were consolidated for trial. At the trial the case was decided under the doctrine of "implied trust" and "departure from doctrine", which meant that the jury was instructed to render a verdict whether the general church had violated the trust of its members by departing fundamentally from its original tenets. The jury found for the seceding churches, as did the Supreme Court of Georgia.

External links

* {{Authority control United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court United States free exercise of religion case law 1969 in United States case law Presbyterianism in the United States