Open Door Christian Church taken back and resold by the landowner

Pastor Bill Wilson	Pastor Lewie Scott

Thursday, June 17, 2004

The Open Door Christian Church in Prospect, valued at nearly $500,000, was seized by the landowner last month because of an unpaid amount on the land on which it sits, according to the church’s Pastor.

Pastor Lewie Scott told Cayman Net News that on 12 May, the locks were changed on the building and that subsequently it was resold, along with much of the belongings of church.

According to Pastor Scott, the church entered into a lease to own agreement with the owners, two brothers, in November 1986 and then proceeded to build the church with donations and tithes from congregation members and with local and overseas sweat equity.

After making 27 monthly payments, Pastor Scott claimed that one of the brothers verbally told the former Pastor of the church, Pastor Bill Wilson, not to make any more payments on the land because he wanted to donate the remaining balance owed on the property to the church.

However, Pastor Scott says the brother died before formally conveying the property to the church, and the land transferred to the surviving brother.

Then, in February 1996, the church received a letter from the owner demanding the outstanding amount owed on the land. According to Pastor Scott, the demand notice was for $31,000, which church officials did not understand because the original contract was for $20,000.

Pastor Scott said the church had its attorney write to the owners three days letter telling the owner that they had been told by the deceased brother not to make any more payments, and offering to resume making the required monthly payments. The letter never received a response, Pastor Scott said.

Pastor Bill Wilson left the Cayman Islands last August, appointing Pastor Scott, who he had ordained as a Youth Pastor in July, to the position.

On 10 May of this year, Pastor Scott said he received a telephone call from the landowner’s attorney advising him that the Caution the church had filed on the Land Register had been lifted.

Pastor Scott said it was the first he knew anything about the process because the notice had been sent to the departed Pastor Wilson’s personal post office box and they had no access to that box. “Notice could have been served any other way,” said Pastor Scott, “They could have served it at the church. The owner knows where I work. Our telephone number is in the book. They knew exactly where to find me to tell me that the Caution had been lifted.”

After the doors to the church had been locked, Pastor Scott said he and his wife tried to negotiate with the owner and his attorney on 14 May to recommence payments on the land. “They were very intimidating and showed no sympathy for our feelings and even made a mockery out of my Pastor (Bill Wilson). They simply said they had other intentions for the building and were not interested in having a church there any more.”

Pastor Scott said that the owner and his attorney indicated that the church could take as much time as needed to remove its belongings from the building. On 22 May, church congregation members took all of the church’s belongings, which Pastor Scott valued at approximately $2,500 to $3,000, and moved them to a central location for transportation at another time.

However, last week Pastor Scott was told that all of the church belongings that had been left in the building were part of the sales agreement to the new purchaser. “It was our most valuable possessions,” Pastor Scott said. “There were teaching materials, books, slides, craft materials and nursery items for the children for Sunday School and art class.”

Pastor Scott said he spoke to the former landowner about the items last Sunday. “He seemed not to know anything about it, and told me that the sales agreement didn’t include our belongings. But he never called to say that we needed to get our stuff out in a certain amount of time. If he had contacted us with a time, we would have adhered to that.”

In the end, the church lost a building with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity for cost of the land. “We could have gone to the bank, but we were still waiting for a response to our letter of 1996,” said Pastor Scott.

Pastor Scott defended Pastor Wilson, saying that what happened was not his fault. “There have been allegations that he stole church money, and that’s why he left, but that’s not true. He left because of personal financial difficulties. He was finding it increasingly difficult to live here.”

Since being locked out of the church, Pastor Scott said that the congregation has been meeting in the living room of one of its members for Bible study and worship. “Sundays we have a real difficult time to worship in those cramped quarters. But we will continue to worship, and to exist. We will re-establish somewhere else, we don’t know where yet. God will show us a place to establish and recover from our hurt here.”

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