The Sad Case of Pastor Erica David and Her Church – A Case Comment

Religious wars are the worst.  Despite historical precedent to the contrary, we are always amazed when religious folk act in the opposite way we expect and become so entrenched in their positions that rational thought seems to completely escape them.  Like it or not, we hold the religious to a higher standard.  That may not be fair but it’s the way it is. 

 Erica Davis was the pastor at the British Methodist Episcopal Church in Guelph for thirteen years until she was ‘replaced’ on July 13, 2008.  Unfortunately her departure was less than graceful.  One collateral effect of her dismissal was the requirement that she surrender the church property and vacate its premises, something you will see if you keep reading, she had little inclination to do. 

Those events crystallized a vision in the pastor’s mind that the church owed her money for her many years of service, a whole lot of money, about a quarter of a million dollars in fact.  According to the court reports, the congregants, acting more or less as spectators at a tennis match watching the volleys go back in forth between the church authorities and the pastor, entered the fray at this point.  In Pilot-like fashion, they tried to resolve the dilemma by offering an unexpected solution.  Instead of paying this alleged debt in the cold hard cash that was being demanded, they generously offered up their real estate to pacify the embittered cleric.  Rev. Davis, likely astonished, gladly obliged.  So a tidy resolution was achieved and a crisis was averted. 

Not so fast.  Lo and behold, the church authorities revealed an explanation for the remarkable pliability of the congregants in offering up their cherished house of worship as a way to rid themselves of this headache.  They didn’t own it, the church did.    

Well, offering Rev. Davis the kitchen sink so to speak and then immediately snatching it away appears to have had the same effect as waving a red blanket in front of a bull.  This dispute went from bad to worse.  Pastor Davis solidly dug in her heels.  She wasn’t going anywhere.  So the church went to court to get her out.  At the hearing, the reverend obstinately, and unwisely, absented herself thereby depriving herself of the benefit of a fair hearing.  The result was disastrous.  The court, only absorbing the church’s one-sided version of events, promptly ordered her to give up interim possession of the property, to deliver up her keys, to stop interfering at the worship services and not to come back to the property without the church’s consent. 

With her back against the wall, Pastor Davis grasped at straws.  She appealed the order.  Still unrepresented, at the appeal she was clearly over her head and her appeal quickly dispensed with.  In fact the court reaffirmed the previous orders and warned her of contempt proceedings if she remained obstinate.  This had no effect upon her.  Seemingly intent on digging herself as deep a hole as possible, she then defiantly scripted a letter to the church’s lawyers confirming that she had no intention to vacate and added, in un-pastor-like fashion, that they were “looking for trouble, and someone could get hurt”. 

With more ammunition in hand the church went back to court.  Her letter poured gasoline on the fire.  The court held her in contempt of the court, as previously it had warned, and re-affirmed the church’s ownership of the property.  Showing remarkable patience, however, the court gave her 10 more days to come to her senses.  It may as well have been 10 years.  Two months later, back in court for the fourth time, the church reported that still nothing had changed.  An order for her incarceration resulted.  It’s not every day that a court makes an order to arrest a defiant cleric. 

Pastor Davis’ options were quickly running out.  She played the appeal card again, this time to the Ontario Court of Appeal.  The nice thing about going to this court is the amount of time it takes to get a hearing.  This tactic bought her a year.  One year later, before a panel of three judges, Rev. Davis appeared to have sobered a bit.  She said she had given up any claim over the ownership of the property, that she had stopped attending the church premises, stopped going to the services, had handed in her keys and had given up all of the church property she in her possession.  The court declared that she had purged her contempt, that there was no longer a need for an arrest warrant and that the proceedings were dismissed.    

So the battle was finally over…or maybe not.  What would motivate Pastor Davis to prolong the battle at this point is anyone’s guess.  One can only speculate that the last administrative point made by the Court of Appeal is dismissing her appeal re-opened her wound.  Unbelievably, to the Supreme Court of Canada she made another appeal. 

Well, on June 3, 2010 the Supreme Court made short work that appeal too.  Thank goodness there is no higher court in this country.  That should be the end of it.  By my count, there were six substantive court rulings made in this case.  That likely means dozens of court appearances. 

The vast majority of cases in the judicial system settle before there is ever a hearing.  For all of the public’s criticism about the efficiency of the judicial system, that must mean something.  Of that small fraction of cases that do go to a hearing, another small percentage go on to an appeal.  Hardly any make it to the highest court.  With those that do, when all is said and done, contrary to the impassioned views of the combatants, it is often difficult to identify who wears the white hat.  Much blood was shed in this battle.  We all should bleed when we read about it.