Now in question is money left in a trust to the former St. Paul Lutheran Church. Some former members blame the pastor hired in 2007; he says their allegations are 'baseless.'
York, PA -
Winterstown Road splits the site of the original St. Paul Lutheran Church and the brick building that went up in the 1920s.
The church sits on a rise in the road, with the St. Paul cemetery at the original site. When the sun rises above the church, it looks like a setting for a Norman Rockwell painting.
This area of North Hopewell Township is dotted with families who have lived for generations in and around the small village of Rinely. The Millers. The Brennemans. The Bushes. And the Hesses.
In 1925, David Hess deeded a
The Rev. Howard Edmondson in 2010. (YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)
parcel of land for the new church for 1 cent. For decades, the little Lutheran congregation worshipped inside the brick building.St. Paul was the kind of country church found across York County, where locals attend from birth, where they get married and baptize their babies and where, when they die, they are buried in the church cemetery.
Today, the building is all that remains -- filled on Sundays by a local Baptist congregation that recently bought the church after renting it for months.
St. Paul is no more, torn apart by a five-year feud that reads like a movie script.
An associate pastor was cited for grabbing a congregant by the arm. The church banned decades-long members from the property. A quiet struggle continues over money, including payments from a $2.8 million trust fund bequeathed to St. Paul by a Hess family member.
Nearly 40 former St. Paul members gathered recently to catch up over a lunch. Many express regret over hiring the Rev. Howard Edmondson in 2007. Many blame him for irreparably damaging their country, churchgoing way of life.
Under Edmondson, the church was renamed Family of God Community Church and it moved to Red Lion. According to former members, only a handful
Former state Sen. Ralph Hess of Manchester Township looks over legal paperwork related to a charitable trust set up by his late uncle Norman Hess. The senator is the executor of the trust fund, which sent money each year to St. Paul Lutheran Church. Now that St. Paul was renamed and moved to Red Lion, he is trying to have the new church removed from the trust. ( YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)
of St. Paul members followed him.In a statement emailed through his attorney, Edmondson called all the allegations by former St. Paul members "baseless." He added the newspaper is not the forum to air what he called "personal disagreements." (Read the full statement)
Former state Sen. Ralph Hess is trying to remove Edmondson's current Red Lion church as a beneficiary of the trust fund, which gives the church $25,000 to $30,000 every year.
Norman Hess, who bequeathed the trust before his death in 1998, would not be happy with how his money is being used, said Ralph Hess, his nephew.
"That was supposed to be for his family church," Hess said. "I'm sure we could find something that in my
Part of the charitable trust Norman Hess set up to send money annually to St. Paul Lutheran Church, which has dissolved. (YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)
heart I know he would approve of. I know he wouldn't approve of this."Wanted: Pastor
Former members trace St. Paul's downfall to the 2004 departure of the Rev. LaDonna Thomas, who took over St. David's Lutheran Church in Hanover. Per protocol, St. Paul's turned to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America for help finding a new pastor.
The search stretched on for more than a year with no viable candidates. The interim pastor could not preach one Sunday per month because of another obligation.
Enter Edmondson, then serving as St. Paul's music director. Unbeknownst to the congregation, said Karen Snook, a former church council member, Edmondson had preaching experience.
He offered to fill in, and the
Friendship Baptist Church today, seen in a photo when it was St. Paul Lutheran Church. ( YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)
congregation accepted. His fiery, passionate, personable style was an immediate hit."I will give Howard credit where credit is due," Snook said. "He knew how to bring people in."
The congregation, which averaged a steady 60 worshippers on Sundays during Thomas' time, had declined while the church searched for a new pastor. Church council members took note of Edmondson's charisma and popularity.
"He came into the congregation, and from the time he came in, he was basically Mr. Nice Guy," said Richard Smith, 71, a St. Paul member for about 55 years. "People loved him."
Edmondson applied to be full-time pastor, but there was one problem: He lacked the seminary credentials required by the ELCA.
"When he put
The Rev. Howard Edmondson was made full-time pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in January 2007 with nearly unanimous votes by the congregation. Now, though, some former members say he led to the demise of their church. He denies the accusations. (Submitted)
his name in, he offered to do training through the Lutheran Church," said Karen Clever, great-granddaughter of David Hess. "That never materialized."The council decided to leave the ELCA and rename the church St. Paul Community Church. Edmondson was made full-time pastor in January 2007.
The full congregational votes on both issues were nearly unanimous.
"Everybody thought, 'This will work. This is what we need,'" Clever recalled.
Simple man
Norman Hess was a simple man, said Ralph Hess, a state senator who represented the 28th District from 1970 to 1991. One of seven brothers, Norman married Pauline and settled in to country life around Stewartstown.
Norman was a World War II veteran of the Army Air Force and a prosperous banker. He worked at banks in Stewartstown for 40 years, retiring from the Stewartstown branch of the former Hamilton Bank, where he was manager.
Pauline was a teacher for 20 years. The couple had no children and didn't take many vacations, Ralph Hess said.
"Their money kept compounding because they didn't spend any," Hess said.
At one time, Norman belonged to St. Paul Lutheran Church. Pauline was a member of Centre Presbyterian Church in Fawn Township. In addition to prospering, they lived long -- Norman died at 92 in 1998, Pauline at 91 in 2008.
With no direct heirs, they created a $2.8 million trust fund to distribute their wealth. The eight benefactors were headed by St. Paul Lutheran and Centre Presbyterian, each of which receive 22.5 percent of the trust's annual earnings. An additional percentage is designated for cemetery upkeep.
Others receiving 9 percent each are Red Cross, Mason Dixon Public Library, Salvation Army, American Cancer Society and Habitat for Humanity International.
Set up through Fulton Bank, the trust has paid out earnings annually since Pauline died in 2008. Ralph Hess said Family of God gets between $25,000 and $30,000 every year.
Problems
For a while, things proceeded smoothly for St. Paul under Edmondson. The changes came gradually and were not really noticeable to the casual Sunday worshipper, Clever said.
Only those really tuned in to the services, and to council debate, would have noticed, she said.
"You would see changes in the services," she said. "He removed any Lutheran aspect to it and changed it to pretty much what he wanted to do."
Smith served on church council for much of his time as a member of St. Paul, starting as a "junior" council member at 16. He recalled Edmondson agreeing to weave his Baptist background with the Lutheran theology favored by the congregation.
"That was what he promised to council," Smith said. "I started seeing things that I didn't especially like. ... He wasn't there only a month and he ended the Lutheran theology."
Then the church council began changing the church's bylaws and its constitution, Snook said. She said the changes were suggested by Edmondson. Both Snook and Smith served on council while the changes were discussed.
The changes were minor at first. Then the council proposed limiting who could vote on church business, which Snook, Clever and Smith say was a change pushed by Edmondson.
"It's all about control with him," Snook said. "He didn't want anybody higher than him."
According to the church constitution, any member "in good standing for one year" could be considered for a council seat by a vote of the full council. A key proposed change gave council the authority to deny voting rights to any member it determined to be not in good standing.
The changes were made after Edmondson influenced the council to appoint his supporters, Smith and Snook said.
"Instead of having a council of church members, he had like three or four pastors on there," Smith said. "He kept saying they were associate pastors to help out."
A 2010 mission trip to Biloxi, Miss., resulted in a memorable dispute, Snook said. Edmondson attempted to stop the trip, Snook said.
According to a letter from church council, signed by Snook and other council members, the church explained that it could not support the Mississippi trip because the mission organizer had not attended St. Paul in the previous two months. The letter explained that she was not responding to phone calls and emails.
"We cannot in good faith assume any financial or legal responsibility in her leadership of the upcoming trip," the letter reads.
Several members ended up taking the Biloxi trip anyway.
Behind the scenes, several former members say, they believe Edmondson held a grudge against anyone who opposed him. Some said they were reprimanded, or barred from speaking, as a penalty for slighting the church.
Smith, for example, said he was asked to resign in September 2011 after he voiced some opposition because he felt council was merely "a rubber stamp" for actions Edmondson wanted done.
Edmondson "said I was slandering the church and I know that's slandering God and I would never do that," Richard Smith said.
Richard Smith was "trying to bring the two sides back together," said Gloria Smith, his wife. "If someone told him they were ready to leave, he tried to talk them into staying, telling them that things would get better."
Things came to a head in April 2012, when certified letters were mailed to about 10 worshippers, including Snook, informing them that they were no longer welcome at St. Paul and that they could be charged with trespassing if they returned.
The letters cited "recent disruptive and unwelcome behavior," and warned recipients they were "not permitted to attend any function of the St. Paul" church at any location.
The letters were not signed by Edmondson or anyone from the church. They were signed by the church's attorney and mailed on her law office letterhead.
Accusations disputed
In May, the church's attorney agreed to pass on written questions to him. The questions covered former church members' allegations about the church and about Edmondson's role in events after he became pastor in 2007.
Edmondson and the church declined requests for interviews and did not respond to the specific questions or the specific allegations. Instead, his attorney emailed a statement on behalf of Edmondson and the church.
"The accusations as suggested are simply inaccurate and both (Pastor) Howard and the Family of God Community Church deny the allegations without qualification," the statement reads.
Email and phone messages for three families who followed Edmondson to Family of God were not returned. A reporter visiting the church was not able to talk with Edmondson. A secretary said he was teaching a Bible study class.
Ex-council member 'livid'
By late 2011, Snook was no longer attending St. Paul. But she continued to receive church emails, including one that advertised a December meeting to discuss the church's 2012 budget.
Snook said she was "livid" that the budget included increased compensation for Edmondson.
"My heart told me I needed to go to that meeting and ask questions," she said.
So she did. And that's when things took an ugly turn.
After a heated exchange over the budget, Snook turned to leave the church. As she made her way through the crowd to the door, the Rev. Robert LaForce, an associate pastor brought aboard by Edmondson, ran to cut her off, Snook said.
A brief altercation ensued and the police were later called. According to the citation filed by North Hopewell Township Police Officer Timothy Quinan, LaForce, then 60, "grabbed the victim's arms with force and threatened to slap" her.
LaForce was found guilty of harassment, and he was fined $110, according to court documents. LaForce did not return messages seeking comment.
Early this year, Edmondson moved his congregation to Red Lion, and Friendship Baptist Church began renting the former St. Paul brick church. Friendship later purchased the church from Family of God Community Church for $200,000, according to York County property records.
The money trail
As executor of the Hess trust, Ralph Hess wants the document rewritten to exclude Family of God. The church's attorneys are fighting that effort, Hess said.
Hess wants to see a copy of Family of God's 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. The terms of the trust fund require beneficiaries to be registered nonprofits.
"Time after time after time, we keep telling the attorney that 'you must be a 501(c)(3),'" Hess said.
Churches are not required to register for 501(c)3 status. In letters to the trust attorney, Family of God claims it remains eligible for the annual distribution. The church added that it intends to secure 501(c)3 status.
Hess said the church continues to stall. He plans to meet with the trust attorney in August to contemplate further action, he added.
At one point, the attorney for Family of God raised a hypothetical scenario: if disaffected former St. Paul members formed a new church, could they be named beneficiaries of the trust?
"I met with them down there and we talked about it," Hess said. "But they were all over the place and they had formed relationships with different churches throughout the southern York County area. We just couldn't pull it together."
As of the end of 2011, St. Paul members had contributed $189,000 toward a new church that had been planned for years, according to church documents provided by Snook. Thomas recalled the congregation identifying several parcels within three miles of the church during her final year at St. Paul.
At the time she left, Thomas said, "the vision for relocation remained, and the pursuit of suitable property continued."
As far as former St. Paul members know, no parcel was ever purchased and the building fund money is held by a church they are no longer permitted to attend.
The church fight cost friendships and damaged faith. Former members scattered to other churches in the area, said Clever, who has been attending Living Word Community Church in York Township.
Thomas laments the loss of St. Paul but commends many families for finding new churches.
"Their faith is not tied to a building, or a family plot of land, or a leader," she said. "It is tied to Jesus Christ."
Then there's Snook, former three-year St. Paul council member who was among those who voted to leave the ELCA. She also voted to hire Edmondson.
"It made me question religion and churches," she said of the experience. "I don't think I need church anymore."
Edmondson's full response
The following is the text of an email from the Rev. Howard Edmondson sent by his attorney in response to a set of questions about former members' allegations concerning what happened at St. Paul. The response was not edited.
"It is clear from the questions asked of Pastor Howard Edmondson and Family of God Community Church that this article is not a historical piece on the Rinley Church, but its purpose is to sensationalize the divergent paths that the Family of God Community Church and some of its former members have taken.
"We strongly feel the paper is not an appropriate forum to carry out personal disagreements. However, to be very clear, the accusations being lodged against Pastor Howard Edmondson and the Family of God Community Church are baseless.
"The accusations as suggested are simply inaccurate and both Past Howard and the Family of God Community Church deny the allegations without qualification."
Ex-pastor: Oversight needed
The Rev. LaDonna Thomas served St. Paul Lutheran Church from 1997 to 2004. Having a significant Lutheran presence in southeastern York County, she said, the congregation enthusiastically sought to grow.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was eager to assist, Thomas said, providing a three-year grant to fund outreach ministries. That money funded a part-time staff position, which enabled St. Paul to begin a contemporary worship service.
That was the good side of the congregation's "entrepreneurial spirit," Thomas said. The downside came when new lay leaders felt so empowered, they opted to sever ties with the ELCA and become an independent church, she said.
"Once the congregation made that move and chose its next pastor, that began the road to their demise," said Thomas, now the pastor at St. David's Lutheran Church in Hanover. "Without any judicatory to provide oversight, support and help, a power struggle and division was inevitable."
Several other local congregations also chose to leave the ELCA after its 2009 decision to permit the ordination of gay pastors and lay leaders, but most of those churches quickly aligned with new organizations such as the North America Lutheran Church.
When churches established around "interrelatedness" go independent, it invites a wide range of problems, Thomas said.
"Unfortunately, I think many of the families of St. Paul thought they could become an independent church and not have any of the ways of 'being church' change," she said.
The center of power is what changed at St. Paul, Thomas said. Instead of power being shared between the pastor and the people, the move away from the ELCA concentrated the power in the new pastor.
"That works so long as the people agree with the pastor," she said. "In the case of St. Paul, when some lay people questioned or resisted the pastoral leadership, they were banned."
The controversy surrounding St. Paul serves as a cautionary tale for any church enamored with the idea of independence, Thomas said.
"There is danger in walking away from those kinds of partnerships," she said.
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