New year sees no let up in Episcopal Church lawsuits

January 20, 2011
by George Conger

A new year has brought new twists and turns to the Episcopal Church’s legal wars. The national church beat back the secession of a West Texas congregation from the Diocese of the Rio Grande, saw reasons for optimism and gloom from Presbyterian property cases in Georgia, Indiana and Missouri, found its lawyer in the Fort Worth cases accused of professional misconduct, and witnessed the amicable settlement of a church property split in New Jersey.

On Dec 16 the 210 District Court of Texas issued judgment in favor of the Diocese of the Rio Grande against St Francis on-the-Hill Anglican Church in El Paso.

The congregation of St. Francis on-the-Hill Episcopal Church on Oct 21, 2008, voted to secede. Litigation commenced and on Feb 10, 2010 Judge Gonzalo Garcia granted summary judgment in favor of the diocese...

...The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and the Diocese of New Jersey have come to an amicable resolution of the status of a former Episcopal congregation that quit the diocese for the Convocation of Anglicans in North American (CANA).

On Nov 23 the diocese agreed to sell the property of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Helmetta, NJ to St. Georges Anglican Church. In Feb 2008, the congregation and its rector voted to secede from the Episcopal Church. Negotiations began over the fate of the congregations building in 2009 and a settlement satisfactory to both sides was reached late last year. the rest

The decision to sell the church buildings to the breakaway group by the diocese places it at odds with the wishes of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who has called for a ban on sales of parish properties to breakaway groups. Testifying in the Virginia cases in 2007, Bishop Jefferts Schori stated that had the buildings of breakaway congregations been offered to sale to Methodist or Baptist groups, she would not object, but “the Episcopal Church, for matters of its own integrity, cannot encourage other parts of the Anglican Communion to set up shop within its jurisdiction.”