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Friday, August 26, 2005
UCCP sues breakaway congregation
A congregation belonging to the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) has filed a civil case against a group of former members who have formed a separate congregation, allegedly using the name of the church they left behind.
Bradford United Church of Christ Inc., in their suit before the Regional Trial Court (RTC), lamented that the new group also brought with them several land titles and other real properties belonging to Bradford and used them to get loans.
The use of the name has confused many people. A separate civil suit, now pending before the Court of Appeals (CA), was instituted to stop the new group from using Bradford’s name.
But the new group, according to the suit, still uses Bradford’s name. Last July 15, it even tried to amend Bradford’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) papers by transferring the original corporation’s address from 85 Osmeña Blvd., where Bradford Church is located, to 340-P Ascencion St., Urgello, Cebu City, where the breakaway group is holding office.
“Not only has defendants tarnished, maligned and desecrated plaintiff’s basic purpose as a religious corporation, defendants further used plaintiff as a means to accumulate money and wealth for their personal vested interests,” the church said of the breakaway group.
Bradford wants the court to stop the new group from using the real properties in any transaction, order it to conduct accounting, return the properties, and pay damages of P5.15 million.
But Henry Cariat, the new group’s administrative pastor, is confident the court will reject the suit because it is their congregation that the court recognizes to be the true and real Bradford Church.
Cariat is one of at least 30 persons impleaded in Bradford’s suit prepared by lawyer Merari Dadula.
“We have been sustained by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Cebu and in Manila. We have also been sustained by the Court of Appeals although there is a motion for reconsideration,” Cariat said in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu.
Cariat opted to wait for his copy of the suit before commenting further. But he maintained that the UCCP-affiliated group is guilty of forum shopping in what is now the latest exchange since 1992, the year the group broke away.
The new group, which had control over the majority of the Bradford UCCP board, severed ties with the UCCP through a resolution that also paved the way for them to establish themselves as an independent church despite remaining inside UCCP-owned property at 85 Osmeña Blvd.
Many of the church’s members, however, did not want to sever their ties with the UCCP and formed a congregation of their own, taking with them the original church’s name, and looked for another place of worship.
The UCCP, for its part, filed an unlawful detainer case against the breakaway group and, in 1995, managed to get back the property via an order from the Supreme Court.
The breakaway group was then ejected from the property. They established their own church on Urgello St., still using Bradford’s name. Members who did not sever their ties with UCCP, and who had for three years worshiped in the chapel at the UCCP-owned Center for Development and Training, moved in.
But, according to the UCCP, the breakaway group brought with them vital documents, financial accounts and titles to real properties when they left.
In fact, based on the suit, the reinstated church was “literally left with very little aside from the church building to sustain its religious ministry,” relying on the contribution of the remaining UCCP members to get by.
Bradford made several demands “upon defendants to cease and desist from identifying their group as plaintiff (Bradford) and for defendants to make an accounting and to turn over to plaintiff all of its properties, monies and documents in their possession.”
But, according to Brad-ford’s suit, the breakaway group has not complied with the demands. (KNR)
(August 26, 2005 issue)
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