Faith in courts

As the season of goodwill fades, an old problem returns: religious disputes that draw in secular courts
Jan 6th 2011
The Economist

PULSES rarely race in Shaughnessy, a genteel, old-money district of Vancouver where mature cedars shield mansions with giant drawing-rooms. But the splendid Anglican church there, which draws worshippers from across the city, is the centre of a dispute that arises in many countries: how should judges rule in religious rows? Usually such quarrels involve worldly goods and rival claims to be the true believers. They quickly raise theological issues normally settled in church councils, not the courtroom.

St John’s Shaughnessy is the largest of four conservative parishes in British Columbia that have quit Canada’s mainstream Anglican (Episcopalian) church in protest against the blessing of same-sex unions. They want to take their churches and their other property with them; their bishop is resisting.

In the latest twist in a long battle, in November, British Columbia’s court of appeal ruled in favour of the bishop. Parish conservatives want to appeal. The issue is who runs the church—something that has riven Christianity since its founding. Liberals say the decision on same-sex blessing was taken according to the rules. Conservatives (many of them Chinese-Canadians) see it as an aberration: they argue that most of the 80m adherents to worldwide Anglicanism belong to churches that eschew gay unions.

The court’s ruling will add to the billowing secular jurisprudence on the handling of disputes over religious assets. A similar row may be looming in the Church of England, where a bunch of Anglo-Catholics are turning to Rome in protest against women becoming bishops. Their leaders will be ordained as Roman Catholic priests on January 15th. the rest