Episcopal Presiding Bishop: Battle Vs. Schism Continues

by Nicholas F. Benton
Thursday, 18 December 2008

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, assured reporters and others that the legal battle between her denomination and defectors who've formed an alternative body and claimed control over Episcopal properties in Virginia will be appealed to the state's Supreme Court, no matter circuit court outcome.

The Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, commenting on the case and others elsewhere in the U.S., noted that in Virginia's suit, the defectors have based their claim on what she called "a Civil War law that permitted the division of churches based on their attitudes toward slavery."

While the Fairfax Circuit Court has ruled the law is applicable in the suit pitting defectors occupying the historic Falls Church downtown in the City of Falls Church, and others, against the Diocese of Virginia, its constitutionality remains at issue. The ultimate outcome of that ruling, whether at the state or U.S. Supreme Court level, will be profound for all major church denominations dealing with schismatic pressures.
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