United Methodist Church demands $4 million from Maryland congregation as ‘exit fee,’ pastor says
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A 222-year-old United Methodist Church congregation in Montgomery County, Maryland, has 56 days to raise $4 million, its senior pastor said Wednesday.
Without the payment, Oakdale Church in Olney will lose its sanctuary when it departs the denomination, which has become divided over the role of LGBTQ people in ministry.
In the first 10 days of a fundraising effort, the 750-member congregation has raised $500,000 — one-eighth of the total, the Rev. Kevin Baker said in a telephone interview.
“We’ve got a ways to go” to meet the Oct. 25 payment deadline, Mr. Baker said.
Initially, Oakland leaders thought they would have until the end of the year, when the current terms for exiting the UMC expire.
The building buyout comes on top of national church requirements for exiting congregations to contribute two years of annual apportionments — $200,000 in Oakland’s case — and money for unfunded pension liabilities, Mr. Baker said.
Established in 1801, Oakdale is one of 22 churches seeking to leave the UMC’s Baltimore-Washington Conference — a regional body akin to a diocese in other denominations. The conference voted to approve the departures earlier this year.
Mr. Baker said the congregation, which opposes LGBTQ clergy, had satisfied the regional body’s other requirements, including meetings about a departure and a congregational vote that approved the exit decision with a two-thirds majority. Oakdale’s in-person attendance on Sundays ranges from 275 to 300 people, with another 130 to 150 viewing online.
However, Oakdale and the other churches are being asked to pay half the assessed value of their real estate, a figure Mr. Baker said adds up to $10 million for the 22 congregations. At $4 million, the Olney congregation has been asked to pay 40% of that figure, he said.
“We’ve gone basically to our congregation with an emergency appeal that we need $4 million by October 25 To be able to buy the building that we’ve already paid for,” the pastor said.
“The conference didn’t pay for any of the building. We’ve paid for the building,” he said.
Along with a historic chapel on the property built in 1914, the main church building and sanctuary were constructed “around 1985” and underwent “a fairly substantial renovation” in 2014 that cost $4 million, Mr. Baker said.
“We’ve said that feels punitive,” he said of the demand, noting that conference Bishop Latrelle Easterling was part of a national team that worked out the rules for congregational departures.
Bishop Easterling; the Rev. Dawn M. Hand, the district superintendent; and communications director Melissa Lauber did not respond to a comment request.
Mr. Baker said neither his clerical superiors nor the conference’s trustee board have been willing to negotiate with Oakland Church. He said that won’t deter the congregation’s mission of evangelism.
“We feel God’s called us to an amazing vision,” he said. “This is just, unfortunately, an obstacle that we’re just going to have to pay the price to get moving forward. We’ve tried to continue to be faithful and gracious. I wish they would have been more willing to negotiate with us, but that has not turned out to be the case.”
While the congregation “would very much like to stay in the building that they’ve paid for,” Mr. Baker said, “the staff, the board and the congregation are committed to being Oakdale Church with or without this building.”
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