Los Angeles: St. Luke’s Petition Denied

Stand Firm
Monday, March 1, 2010

LA CRESCENTA, Calif. - March 1, 2010 - St. Luke’s Anglican Church has learned today that the Supreme Court of the United States has denied its petition for writ of certiorari filed in December of last year.

St. Luke’s asked the Court to decide whether California courts violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution by conferring on The Episcopal Church and its Diocese in Los Angeles a special power - not available to nonreligious persons or nondenominational churches - to seize St. Luke’s property and take over its corporation based on its religious affiliation.

Since its founding, the members of St. Luke’s have remained steadfast and loyal in their commitment to the Holy Scripture and to the historic teachings of Christianity as affirmed throughout the world-wide Anglican Communion. The increasing expression of non-orthodox belief and practices found in The Episcopal Church demonstrated to the members of St. Luke’s that The Episcopal Church has chosen a path that no longer reflects these cherished principles. Therefore in February of 2006, after prayerful and well-considered deliberation, over ninety percent of St. Luke’s members voted to disaffiliate from The Episcopal Church and realign themselves with another province of the worldwide Anglican Communion. St. Luke’s felt it had a legal right to make this choice as it had owned its property "free of any trust" for decades, and is a California nonprofit religious corporation governed by a board of directors and its members. the rest