Reported by Liku Zelleke
A D.C. Superior Court decision has reinstated Joel R. Peebles to the board of the Jericho City of Praise, one of the Washington area’s largest and best-known churches.
Judge Stuart G. Nash ruled in favor of Peebles and William A. Meadows who had both been improperly removed from the board of trustees in 2009 and that the subsequent actions taken by the board – like firing Peebles following the death of his mother – were invalid.
The church was founded by Peebles’ parents, Betty and Bishop James R. Peebles Sr., over fifty years ago. It is located in a 100-acre campus new the FedEx field in Landover, Md.
Apart from social facilities like its housing for senior citizens, a business park, a school and even a drug treatment center, the church is a well-known venue for religious and musical celebrities like Bishop T.D. Jakes and Patti LaBelle.
A few weeks after Peebles’ mother died in 2010, the church filed papers to incorporate in Maryland. Soon after, a fight over who would control the church started. It became so bitter that it divided the congregation and resulted in years of litigation in Maryland and D.C. courts.
Two years into the litigations, Peebles was fired by the board and escorted off the church property following a Prince George County Circuit Court ruling which permitted the board to do so. That decision was later rejected by the Maryland Special Court of Appeals.
Congregation members who supported Peebles were forced to worship in school auditoriums and sports arenas while those that remained loyal to the board continued to do so in the church complex.
Now, the ruling states that Peebles and Meadows should be put back on the church’s board and church members who had sued in protest of their being ousted from the church should also be reinstated as members pending a review of their statuses by the newly constituted board.
A lawyer for Peebles said, “Bishop Peebles is very grateful for the court’s thorough and careful opinion. It shows that the defendants can’t exercise any control over the church and its assets.”
The board, meanwhile, has said that it plans to appeal the decision.
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