A Church With 60 Mortgage-Free Properties Told the Court It Couldn’t Pay a $776,000 Award

• A Bahamas church owed a $776,000 judgment plus costs and interest
• It holds 60 mortgage-free properties, including a 2,500-seat cathedral
• The church said seizing its deposits would leave it “totally compromised”
• The Chief Justice approved taking $250,000 from its bank accounts

A Bahamian church told the Supreme Court it could not afford to pay a $776,000 award, even though it owns 60 properties free of any mortgage. The Tribune reported in April 2024 that Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder was not persuaded.

The debtor was the Incorporated Trustees of the St John’s Particular Church of Native Baptists, led by bishop and superintendent Reverend Carrington Pinder. The judgment creditor was Bishop Godfrey R Williams. On top of the $776,000 award, the church faced $589,907 in legal costs and $86,769 in accrued interest.

The church argued that taking its bank deposits would leave it “totally compromised” and that it “cannot satisfy the debts in full” from the money it had. It reported a surplus of $48,000 for 2023, and its operating account held $182,918 on November 21, 2023.

The court heard a very different picture of the church’s wealth once its property was counted. It holds 60 mortgage-free properties, 11 of them in New Providence, including St John’s Jubilee Cathedral in Freeport, which seats 2,500. Chief Justice Winder approved a $250,000 third-party debt order against the church’s accounts at Royal Bank of Canada. He found the church had enough assets to pay more but had not “leveraged” its real estate.

The ruling puts a name to a common condition among older Caribbean churches: land-rich and cash-poor. A church can own a valuable estate and still struggle to meet a bill, and a court will not necessarily accept that as a reason not to pay.

Many Jamaican denominations are in a similar position, holding substantial debt-free property while running tight budgets. The Bahamas case is a reminder for church boards here that property is not a shield against creditors. Keeping proper records of what the church owns, maintaining cash reserves or insurance for legal claims, and having a plan to borrow against or sell surplus property if needed are all part of responsible stewardship.

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