THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507130379
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KITTY HAWK LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Dueling deacons who have spent two years fighting for control of this town's First Baptist Church will have to share the sanctuary.
Despite some parishioners' protests, the Rev. Clinton W. Hardee Jr., who has served as minister of the Kitty Hawk church since 1991, will keep the pulpit and his pastor position, Judge Anthony Brannon of Durham decided in Dare County Civil Superior Court.
William Harrison, Craig Buckley, John Boone, Gary Aspin, Clarence Gist and Plaintiff Sherald Ward - who were elected deacons in September 1993 - will remain the governing body of the 22-year-old church.
The plaintiffs, a group of ``Deacon Pro Tems'' who have been holding separate worship services in the church, will no longer be given special access to the building and will have to attend the same services as the rest of the congregation, the judge said. But none have returned since the legal decision was issued.
Both sides waived their right to a jury trial because the case was so complicated, lawyers said. The judge heard two and a half days of testimony in the case. About 12 witnesses took the stand.
``My clients have not yet decided whether to appeal,'' Elizabeth City attorney John Trimpi said Wednesday. Trimpi represented the plaintiffs in a lawsuit which sought to oust the minister and give a group of ``deacons pro tem'' control over the church. He has until the end of July to file an appeal.``We're disappointed with the judge's decision,'' Trimpi said. ``A lot of folks also are very disappointed that the pastor did not step down and spare his congregation all this litigation. It was a very difficult case because we had to segregate the ecclesiastical concerns from the judicial aspects.''
Kitty Hawk lawyer Robert Outten, who represented the defendants in the case, said his clients are ``satisfied with the outcome. The plaintiffs had asked for more than $10,000 in monetary damages. And they didn't get anything,'' Outten said. ``My clients were pleased the court saw these issues the way they did.
``This ruling will allow the church to get back to the business it ought to be conducting.''
According to the attorneys and legal documents, the schism in the First Baptist Church of Kitty Hawk began four years ago when Rev. Hardee took the pulpit. The pastor's critics - who include many of the church's founders - contend he has intimidated and tried to drive out members who disagree with him. His supporters say other church members are bitter and refuse to accept the congregation's majority rule.
Tensions rose to a boiling point in August 1993. During a regular business meeting, some church members attempted to oust the minister with a vote of the congregation. ``The congregation, by majority vote, elected to retain Pastor Hardee,'' the judge's finding of fact says.
A few weeks later, the group of church members who later became plaintiffs in the lawsuit resigned as officers and members of all committees in the church, the judge's June 30 ruling says. On Sept. 15, 1993, six deacons - who later became defendants in the lawsuit - were elected to oversee church business.
During a Dec. 1, 1993, meeting, the church's plaintiff faction tried to rescind the congregation's vote that elected the new deacons. The meeting broke up in angry confusion, with the plaintiffs adjourning to a nearby Golden Corral restaurant where they continued discussions. The plaintiffs then elected their own group of deacons, who became the ``deacons pro tem'' of the church.
The judge ruled that the Golden Corral meeting - and subsequent election - ``had no legal force or effect and were not binding upon defendants or upon the Church.''
In March 1994, a District Court judge ordered that the minister retain the pulpit, the deacons retain control over the church, but the plaintiff group be allowed access to the sanctuary on Sundays from 9 to 10:30 a.m. and 5 to 6:30 p.m., on Thursday nights and during other times that both parties agreed on. The plaintiff group held separate services with their own minister during these alternate hours. They will no longer be allowed to do so, Judge Brannon ruled.
``The folks who brought suit have not returned to the church,'' Hardee said Wednesday, adding that between 30 and 40 people have dropped out of the congregation as a result of the legal action. ``The rest of the church, more than 350 members, is excited that the decision was favorable to us. There's a good spirit here now.''
According to Trimpi, one of the original issues that split the congregation was a bylaw provision prohibiting women and single men from serving as deacons of the church because they are not considered ``spiritually fit'' for the position. Trimpi said his clients felt that was an unfair policy which should be overturned by the court. The judge ruled that it was an ecclesiastical issue which should be decided by the congregation.
``Traditionally, this church has not had women who serve as deacons. It's just a consensus of opinion. It's not a predjudicial thing,'' Hardee said. ``Most of the people just feel that the leadership of this church should be left to the men.''
Trimpi disagreed. ``We thought everyone who belonged to the church and attended worship services should be considered `spiritually fit' to serve as leaders,'' said the lawyer. ``But the pastor is a fundamentalist. So the conservative standpoint stands.''
The Kitty Hawk church is the first of North Carolina's 3,800 Baptist congregations to take a schism to court, Hardee said.
``My feeling was that the suit was only to harass and harangue anyway,'' said the minister. ``The idea was to get me to resign and the deacons to give up. But I had no reason to resign. And the deacons knew they were the duly elected leaders. So we just didn't give up on our church.'' by CNB