Members sue Zion church officers over finances

Members of Zion Baptist Church filed suit Thursday against the church officers in the latest salvo of a long battle that has pitted member against member in the North Philadelphia church best known for the legacy of a former pastor, the Rev. Leon Sullivan.

The 51-page lawsuit, filed in Common Pleas Court, alleges that the church treasurer, the clerk, and the chairmen of the trustee and deacons boards, along with other board members, have not been good stewards of the church's assets.

And, the suit says, when the pastor, the Rev. Carl Prince, questioned the handling of finances, the group ran an improper vote and got him fired last summer.

"Unfortunately, what I see is going down, the assets are not being protected by the board of trustees," said Anita Chappell, 82, the lead plaintiff and a supporter of the ousted pastor.

Heading the board of trustees is Germantown attorney Ronald J. Harper, the lead defendant. Harper has served on the trustee board for more than 20 years, Chappell said.

The suit said Harper and other trustees "have engaged in subterfuge and deception in order to mask and conceal acts of misappropriation, conversion, and misuse of church assets and abuse of defendants' position of trust."

Harper said Thursday that he would like "to put a spiritual spin" on why he is being sued, but was "tempted to say they are crazy."

A lawyer representing Harper and other church officers in a suit filed by many of the same plaintiffs over Prince's ouster last year had no comment.

"This is really a private church matter," said the attorney, Kathleen Thomas. "Needless to say, anything about a church is very emotional."

A Philadelphia Daily News story published after Prince was fired quoted members from one of his former churches saying Prince was divisive and had caused members to leave.

What brought the matter to a head, according to the plaintiffs' lawyer, Rosalind Plummer, was an $18 million project to renovate the Zion Gardens apartments on the 1000 and 1100 blocks of Girard Avenue.

Zion Gardens was an early project of Sullivan, a believer in economic empowerment of African Americans. Church members funded the project through "investment shares" paid for by monthly contributions.

Harper went ahead with plans for the project even though the now-ousted pastor had opposed it because, Chappell said, Harper had not given the group enough information about the project when it was introduced to the church in August 2013.

One sticky issue was the ownership and control of the 98-unit complex.

Harper, who chairs the church-related nonprofit entity that owns the complex, said he had no personal ownership stake in it. Asked whether he expected to be paid personally as the entity's legal representative in setting up the deal, he said: "I hope so. I'm a lawyer. I've done most of the work."

Harper said the goal of the nonprofit project was to renovate the buildings for low-income housing, using any operating surpluses to fund community development near Zion Baptist, at Broad and Venango Streets.

The suit also raises questions about the handling of a scholarship fund and $90,000 of donated sound equipment.

The lawsuit said that an auditor retained by Prince to examine the church's books said there was not enough information to conduct a proper audit and raised concerns about "commingling of accounts" among the affiliated nonprofits.

One result is that Chappell and the 37 other plaintiffs spend a lot of time in church on Sunday. Many follow several hours of Sunday school and worship at Zion with a prayer service led by Prince at a nearby church.

Zion's membership is declining, Chappell said.

"We were 6,000 when Sullivan was there," she said. "Now they'd be hard-pressed to get 350 in there at one time. Our members are dying. We've got four funerals this week."

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