45 Neb. 208 | Neb. | 1895
The appellants as plaintiffs were denied the relief by them prayed in the district court of Adams county. The allegations of their petition pertinent to our review of the decree complained of on. appeal were that Shilo church at Kenesaw, in the aforesaid county, was an organization -created under the laws of Nebraska in conformity with the rules and government of the Evangelical Association of North America; that said Shilo church had acquired two certain tracts of real property, on one of which was a church building, and the other was used for a parsonage; that one of the plaintiffs, Conrad Schwab, at the time of the filing of the petition, and long before, was, and had been, an ordained minister in said Evangelical Association and a member of the Platte River conference; that at the annual conference of the Platte River Conference District in 1892, presided over by S. C. Breyfogle, an acting bishop in said association, the aforesaid Conrad Schwab was duly elected and thereupon was duly assigned to preach and preside over said Shilo church. It was charged in the petition that notwithstanding the facts stated, the defendants wrongfully refused to recognize the pastoral authority of Rev. Conrad Schwab, and unless restrained would eject him from the aforesaid church property. While this language would imply that Rev. Conrad Schwab was in the possession of said church property, this is rendered perhaps more than doubtful by the following averments found in the petition, to-wit: “Plaintiffs state that the defendants were at one time members of said Evangelical Association, but that they are now in a state of rebellion against the same, against the officers thereof, and refuse to be governed by the laws of said Evangelical Association as set forth in the discipline thereof; that they refuse to recognize any of the acts of the annual conference herein mentioned; refuse to accept the minister thereat assigned, and without
By the pleadings there were presented for determination, in limine, the questions whether or not either appointee was a member of the general society known as the Evangelical Association of North America, and whether or not either of the parties litigant was connected therewith or were seceders from and in rebellion against it. If these propositions should be settled in such a manner as to permit of further litigation, the next question presented would be whether or not J. J. Esher was a bishop when the Platte River Annual Conference was held at Beaver Crossing, and if so, what was the effect of the irregularities which in such case must be conceded to have characterized subsequent proceedings. These are questions which must be determined by the proper authorities of the association. While they are insisted upon in this appeal, they are in fact merely incidental to the principal, and probably the only, question which we are asked to decide, and that is, who was the proper preacher to have charge of and preside over Shilo church between a day certain of March, 1892, and a corresponding day in March, 1893?
In Pounder v. Ashe, 44 Neb., 672, an opinion has been filed during this term in which it was held that so long as there is no infringement of the rights of a citizen and there is no conflict with the jurisdiction of the state, church associations should be free from the interference of courts where there is drawn in question only the right of such organizations to try and, if need be, expel its members for the violation of a church ordinance or law. It is quite possible that for the final determination of the unhappy controversy, to which this is a mere incident, there exists in the regulations of the Evangelical Association of North America no sufficient provision. This, if it exists, is a deficiency which can be supplied only by the association.
The decree appealed from which dissolved the injunction obtained by plaintiffs and denied the relief prayed was justified by the views expressed, and the judgment of the district court is therefore
Affirmed.