Former pastor loses case against Baptist Assn.

An interesting ruling was handed down this morning in a case involving a Church and one of its former pastors who is now in government employ at the Foreign Ministry. The dispute between former Baptist Pastor, Percy Lewis, and the Baptist Association of Belize, was over a piece of property and the church building on Dolphin Drive in Buttonwood Bay area. Lewis claimed that he was entitled to possession of the property by virtue of adverse possession, commonly known as squatters’ rights. The land was transferred from Diane Staine to the Baptist Mission in the nineteen nineties and Lewis’ attorney, Alifa Elrington, sought to base her case on one technical point, the transfer was not made to the Baptist Association but the Baptist Mission. Elrington argued that the Mission is an entity that cannot own property. In his ruling, however, Justice Oswell Legall said he felt there was an error in the transaction and that the intention was to transfer the property to the ownership of the Baptist Association. President of the Association, Pastor Ashley Rocke, says he is elated about the ruling but he’s also saddened by the procedure.

Ashley Rocke, Pres., Baptist Assn. of Belize
“Mr. Lewis took the Church to court. It is unfortunate that he having to do all of that and spending all that money and now having to hear a ruling that was made for the church. We never doubted that the case was in our favour. We never doubted that. The whole thing started when Percy approached us and told us that he no longer wanted any kind of association with the Baptist Association of Belize and he was claiming that the land out in Buttonwood Bay belongs to him. There is no way it could have belonged to him. The way we operate, our policy is that when a pastor assumes a responsibility for a church like for instance this one, the pastor is not in charge or controls the church; the church is controlled by the membership. The pastor is there to guide and to inspire and to encourage the church, but the decision of any church is based on the decision of the membership. And what he did not do, he did not confide in the membership. He just arbitrarily decided that the building was his, the ground was his, and that is wrong. That’s not how we operate. That’s not how we behave. And then he made all sorts of allegations against us. We know that we don’t take each other to court, but I suppose Percy got so adamant and he thought that that was the best thing to do. We’re very happy for the ruling and we will now proceed with doing whatever we have to do to carry our Ministry back to that community. His ordination has been revoked.”

Marion Ali
“But you say you want to rebuild on the relationship.”

Pastor Ashley Rocke
“We want to rebuild the relationship but his ordination as a pastor has been revoked by the Baptist Association of Belize. No preaching for us.”

Pastor Rocke says that members of the church had to worship at other Baptist churches for the past four years since the dispute began.