Gleanings From
In Christian Fellowship
By Shirley Lindahl
Edited by Jerry Rutherford
Property Ownership Problem Solved
It was discovered by lawyer F. M. Roberts, brother of Helen Shinstrom, that the Community church was not a corporate body, therefore, "Not legally able to hold title to properties." A constitutional committee was set up to correct this discrepancy since the Building Society would not consider a loan unless the church was in a position to give a valid mortgage on the real estate.Organizing into a Community Church had created an awkward situation. The ecclesiastical body called the church was not the same as the corporate body holding title to the property at this time. The pioneers who organized the First Congregational Church of Kirkland on December 17, 1894 did it according to the laws of the state of Washington and incorporated. Through the years the church officers had been conducting much of the business that technically should have been handled by the corporate body. Each year corporate officers should have been elected and an annual meeting held. Somewhere through the years this procedure had not been continued.
A dozen of the oldest members gathered together and adopted a resolution stating how the church was organized in 1894 as a corporation and how over the period of time any minute books of this corporation which may have existed have disappeared, but that the ecclesiastical body of the same name continued to exists and still exists, subject to a name change, it be resolved that all members of the ecclesiastical body known originally as First Congregational Church of Kirkland and since known as Kirkland Community Church be admitted as members of the corporation.
Attending the meeting on October 24, 1939 were Mrs. W. H. Huntington, David Burr, Olivia Burr Powell, Sadie Calkins Amundsen, Olivia French Davis, Irving Gates, Ralph Coman, Alvin Curtis and Rosa French.
In compliance with the law, five trustees were elected for the corporate body to serve until the constitutional meeting which would be held in January of 1940. When the congregation realized how confused the records had become it was decided to elect Myrtle Robertson to be the first church historian with the task of drawing together the miscellaneous records.
As a first step to bring proper organization to the church, a new constitution was adopted at the meeting on January 8, 1940. The official ballot for the election was properly printed. (It seems ironical at this time when I am writing about a proper official ballot, which is shown below--ballots are still be counted and recounted in Florida for the presidential election of the year 2000.) The simple ballot below has boxes for placing your "X".
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