Christ Church Savannah: Georgia’s top court wades into church fight

By Walter Jones
Monday, May 9, 2011

ATLANTA -- Georgia’s top court is trying to sort out who gets to own Christ Church, the state’s oldest church, in a contest that grew out of conservatives’ disagreement with the national Episcopal denomination’s decision to have an openly gay bishop.

Monday morning, the pews were packed with bishops, clergy and parishioners as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments. The court’s justices peppered lawyers for both sides about which documents to rely on in sorting out ownership of the building...

...During Monday’s arguments in an appeal of that lawsuit, James Painter, an attorney for the congregation, tried to put the case into perspective.

“It’s fitting that this argument is held on the day after Mother’s Day as Christ Church in Savannah is widely known throughout our state as the Mother Church of Georgia,” he said.

Painter argued that the congregation should be able to keep the $3 million building and property because the grant from Oglethorpe, as King George’s agent makes it unique from other cases of Georgia churches that broke from their own national organizations. State laws on church property were drafted for smaller, rural churches, he said.
the rest  (picture by Raymond Dague)

A divided, historic Savannah church lands in court
...On Monday the divided church membership battled in Georgia's Supreme Court over who owns the $3 million property and the building. Many legal observers believe the case could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Several hundred of the breakaway congregation's members still meet at the stately building, designed to look like a Greek temple, which looms over Bull Street. A smaller group of church adherents who side with the national group have made their temporary spiritual home at another nearby church....