Messengers approve resolution on eminent domain: Raleigh NC Biblical Recorder News, 11/15/06

Messengers to the 2006 annual meeting of the [North Carolina] Baptist State Convention (BSC) approved a resolution dealing with churches that lose their property through the exercise of eminent domain, restored escrowed funds to Baptist Retirement Homes, and raised other issues during miscellaneous business sessions Nov. 14.

Deryl Holliday, interim pastor of Sedgefield Baptist in Greensboro, successfully asked messengers to suspend the rules that require resolutions to be published in advance so he could present a resolution.

Sedgefield Baptist sits in the path of a planned six-lane highway, he said, leading the state to claim the property through eminent domain. Holliday said it would take a million dollars to replace Sedgefield's land and facilities, but the state offered $400,000 less.

Holliday asked messengers to approve a resolution supporting an upcoming bill in the N.C. legislature that will require the state to pay replacement value for any land or facilities belonging to churches and non-profit organizations that is claimed through eminent domain.

The motion passed with no apparent opposition.

---

Raleigh NC Biblical Recorder News: http://www.biblicalrecorder.org