PCUSA 'waving the flag of God and country' in joining Episcopal property lawsuit in Virginia, attorney says

By Patrick Jean
Staff Writer
The Layman
Friday, May 23, 2008

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is "waving the flag of God and country" in joining the Episcopal Church's legal fight against a Virginia law that grants property to congregations departing a divided denomination, a legal counsel for many PCUSA congregations said.

"If the case was just about the statute, then its effect would stop at the borders of Virginia because the statute in question is very specific to that particular state," said Lloyd Lunceford, an attorney in Baton Rouge, La., and an elder of First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge. "This question, however, of constitutionality has much wider significance."

On April 3, a circuit court judge in Fairfax County, Va., ruled that Virginia's Civil War-era "division statute" applies to 11 northern Virginia congregations that were taken to court by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia after they left the diocese in late 2006 for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

"The court finds that a division has occurred in the diocese," Judge Randy Bellows wrote. That finding means the congregations get to keep their property under state law – at least until a trial to resolve the property issue, which is scheduled for October.

The diocese and the Episcopal Church are challenging the division statute. They say there shouldn't be a property trial this fall because the statute is unconstitutional, Lunceford said. the rest