NATION : PTL Offshoot Plans Move to N.C.

FORT MILL, S.C. — The successor to the PTL ministry announced plans today to move the church and television studios from the Christian retreat that founder Jim Bakker lost over a sex scandal.

Officials at Heritage Ministries, the surviving offshoot of PTL, said they plan to move their church and television studios to a facility just across the state line in Charlotte, N.C.

The move, scheduled to take place by June 1, would end the use of the PTL grounds as a Christian retreat and broadcast center unless the new owner, Canadian businessman Stephen Mernick, decides to use it in that capacity. Mernick, an Orthodox Jew, has not said what his plans are.