March 29, 2012

Dear fellow members of First Presbyterian Church:

On Sunday, April 29 following the 11:00 service, our church will hold two brief consecutive meetings—the first a congregational meeting and the second a meeting of members of the incorporated church known as First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, S.C.—to act on several recommendations from our Church Status Committee and Session regarding the legal status of our church as a non-profit organization. The business of the meetings will focus on standardizing church property deeds, adopting Bylaws and Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation in accordance with SC state law and the Book of Order, and electing trustees for the church corporation. All of these actions come out of the work of the Church Status Committee, which has researched these proposals since its inception in 2008.

In advance of these meetings, the Church Status Committee and the Session want members of the congregation to have opportunities to review the proposed Bylaws and the Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation and to become familiar with the items we will deal with on April 29. There will be two information sessions for the purpose of discussing the proposed recommendations regarding the legal status of the church:

1. Wednesday, April 11, 6:30 pm, Purnell Room
2. Sunday, April 29, 10:00 am, Social Hall

A link to the proposed Bylaws and the Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation is found here on this page. In addition, please feel free to contact me (beachamdm@wofford.edu  or 864/597-4206) for information or with any questions prior to the meetings.

In 2008, an ad hoc group of church officers and attorneys, chaired by Elder Pat Perrin, began reviewing documents and issues related to the overall legal standing of First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, S.C.  They found several matters of concern:  first, the church had been incorporated on October 17, 1939, but had been operating ever since in non-compliance with the laws of the state of South Carolina governing non-profit corporations; second, as the church campus expanded over the years, property had been deeded to the church in a variety of inconsistent names.  In addition, a comprehensive survey and plat of church property did not exist; there was no thorough narrative review of the history of church property acquisition, and there were issues related to the fire protection of the vault in which important governing documents of the church are stored.

This group was formalized by action of the Church Planning Committee of the Session, and it has been called the Church Status Committee.  Its members have included Pat Perrin, fellow attorneys Michael Pack, Jim Shaw, and Tim Cleveland, and David Beacham, Clerk of Session De Calvert, Church Treasurer Wally Barre, Scott Neely, and David Renwick (until his departure several months ago).  Ken Darr and Bill Bean, two attorneys currently serving on the Session, have also consulted with this group as its work has progressed.  From its formation in 2008 through the present time, the Session has been kept abreast of all work of this committee.  Early work of this group enabled the accomplishment of the first important tasks:  a survey and plat of all church property has been completed and recorded, document security has been enhanced thanks to vault improvements, a history of church property acquisition has been finished, and issues related to deeds and name inconsistencies have been appropriately addressed. 

The primary objective of this committee has been to develop and recommend to the Session a plan to bring First Presbyterian Church into full compliance with applicable state law. In order for a non-profit entity—even a church—to be compliant, certain documentation must be prepared and filed with the state, including Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.  The Book of Order also recommends that churches be incorporated and have Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation.  It is also necessary for such a corporation to have a “Board of Trustees”.  Much of the work of the Church Status Committee in the last two years has been consumed with developing a workable set of Bylaws and defining a group that could be named as trustees of the corporation known as First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, S.C.

I am pleased that, after much hard work, we now have Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation and a set of Bylaws that defines the corporate trustees, and the Bylaws document was approved by vote of the Session in September.  We are now ready to present both documents to the congregation for approval at the respective meetings of the Congregation and Corporation that have been called for Sunday, April 29 following the 11:00 service.

Please join us for the information sessions on these items on April 11 and 29, and please join us for these important meetings on Sunday, April 29. Again, feel free to contact me for information or with questions prior to the meetings.

Sincerely,

David M. Beacham
Chair, Church Status Committee

Page Updated April 25, 2012