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Property fight looms in U.S. Episcopal split
2007-01-26
Gay issues splintering the U.S. Episcopal Church appear to be pushing it into a divorce and, like many separations, there is property at stake -- in this case worth millions. Leaders of its 2.4 million members and conservative elements disagree over who owns the property, as the dispute over homosexuals in the church heats up. Already about 100 parishes have placed themselves under foreign jurisdiction. Barring a compromise -- and given that property disputes are a matter of local, not U.S. national law -- it is a battle likely to be fought in the courts, state by state, for years. The U.S. church and the 77-million-member Worldwide Anglican Communion, a federation of national churches around the world, have been divided since 2003 when the Episcopalians consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first openly gay bishop in 450 years of Anglican Church history. Some U.S. parishes left and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of African bishops who oppose the move. Robinson's appointment was supported by Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop in the United States and the first woman to head a national Anglican church. In some of the most prominent defections, the Falls Church and Truro Church, both in Virginia, voted to break away last year and affiliate with the Anglican Church of Nigeria, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola. The two Virginia churches also voted to keep their property, said to be worth at least $25 million. About 6,000 people worship at the churches, whose roots go to colonial times. George Washington, the first U.S. president, and his father served on the vestry at Truro Church. "Property of all sorts held by parishes is held and must be used for the mission of the Episcopal Church," Jefferts Schori said. "We cannot abrogate our interest in such property." OLD PRECEDENT Congregations cannot unilaterally leave, she said, and centuries-old precedent prevents bishops from poaching in a diocese other than their own, the way African bishops sympathetic to the dissidents have done. The Diocese of Virginia declared the properties of the two churches and nine others that defected to be "abandoned" and banned two dozen clergy members from their ministry. Diocese spokesman Patrick Getlein said eight of the churches had filed civil court actions to retain the properties but that church law clearly shows the diocese owns not only the land and buildings but also their contents. Bishop Peter Lee, head of the diocese, said recently he had tried to find a way forward without resorting to civil courts. "No longer am I convinced that such an outcome is possible," Lee said. The diocese cited state law and a diocesan law stating all real and personal property is "held in trust" for the diocese. "Show me the paper that has the names," responded Jim Pierobon, spokesman for Falls Church and Truro Church, saying no such trust formally exists. "Virginia law doesn't favor denominations -- it favors congregations." David Virtue, a critic of the Episcopal leadership, said Jefferts Schori is wrong, as cases in California have shown. "It is not as black and white as she says," Virtue said. "In some dioceses, the bishops have lost. In others, they have won." Wicks Stephens, chancellor of the Anglican Communion Network, a conservative group within the church that claims to represent about a quarter of a million Episcopalians, said a 1979 U.S. Supreme Court decision made it clear state courts can look at church property disputes. He said court history shows that a 1979 Episcopal Church law called the Dennis Canon -- which reserves all property for the church -- "is not enforceable, and when properly defended against, it will be defeated in a lawsuit."
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