WSJ: Church Fight Heads to Court

South Carolina Episcopalian Factions Each File Suit After Split Over Social Issues
By VALERIE BAUERLEIN
April 14, 2013

Episcopalians along the South Carolina coast are battling in court to determine which of two factions owns an estimated $500 million in church buildings, grounds and cemeteries, following an acrimonious split last year over social issues.

The leadership and about two-thirds of the members of the Diocese of South Carolina, based in Charleston, broke away from the national Episcopal Church last November over its blessing of same-sex unions, ordination of gay clergy and its liberal approach to other social and theological issues. The breakaway faction then filed a state lawsuit to assert ownership of 35 parishes, including many of the church's wealthiest in the state. The group says it shouldn't have to turn property over to a church that it believes has drifted from Biblical principles.

"The essential issue here is freedom of religion," said the Rev. James B. Lewis, a top assistant to the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, the breakaway group's bishop. "We have the freedom to remove ourselves."... the rest