Colorado: Court fight over historic church starts Tuesday

February 7, 2009
MARK BARNA
THE GAZETTE

The church building on North Tejon Street is, inarguably, an architectural treasure.Its stone-on-stone Gothic construction, highlighted by an iconic tower crowned with turrets, is "a marvelous display of ecclesiastic architecture," said Colorado Springs project manager Tim Scanlon.

But the beautiful church is at the center of an ugly fight over who owns it - the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado or a group that broke away from the U.S. Episcopal Church but has continued to worship in the building.

The winner of the fight will likely be determined in a trial that begins Tuesday in El Paso County District Court and is expected to last six weeks. the rest