Stage Set for Costly Legal Property Fight in Episcopal Church USA
by Jody Brown
December 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A possible legal battle over millions of dollars worth of church property looms in the aftermath of votes on Sunday by a group of Episcopal churches in Virginia to leave the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and associate themselves with conservative Anglican groups in Africa.
The votes, which affect about ten percent of the 90,000 Episcopalians in the Diocese of Virginia, came in response the denomination's growing acceptance of homosexual relationships. Another factor in the decisions was those churches' rejection of the authority of recently installed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson.
Eight parishes, including two of Virginia's largest, announced Sunday that their members have voted to leave the U.S. branch of the world Anglican Communion. Leaders of Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church, which have roots back to the 1700s, have led the way in establishing a conservative alternative to ECUSA. According to the Washington Post, those two parishes -- both of which voted 90 percent or more to severe from the denomination -- will form the core of a Virginia-based mission of the conservative Episcopal Church of Nigeria, whose archbishop has called the growing acceptance of homosexual relationships a "satanic attack" on the church.
In interviews with Associated Press, Truro leaders spoke sadly of the denominational demise they have witnessed in recent decades, but positively of ministry in the future. Rev. Marshall Brown, associate rector of Truro Church, expressed sorrow that Truro Church had to leave the Episcopal Church, which he said has been sick and dying for decades.
"I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and I've just watched it kind of die, piece by piece," Brown said. "The whole controversy of sexuality unfortunately is just kind of the last petal to fall ...."
But of the overwhelming vote to leave the American branch of the Anglican Communion, lay leader Jim Oakes said "we have heard resoundingly from our congregation that they want to severe those ties with the Episcopal Church -- and [they] think it's important that we continue our ministry in a different way."
And Truro member Katrina Wagner put it this way to the Post. "[T]he issue is: Are we going to follow Scripture?"
Episcopal News Service reports that Virginia Bishop Peter Lee was to convene a meeting today (December 18) to discuss the situation and "to consider the full range of pastoral, canonical, and legal obligations" of ECUSA as well as the denomination's responsibilities to "those faithful Episcopalians" in Virginia who voted against the move. Among issues to discuss certainly will be church property, as both Truro and Falls Church voted not only to severe ties with the U.S. church, but also in favor of a resolution saying they should keep the property.
"As stewards of this historic trust, we fully intend to assert the church's canonical and legal rights over these properties," says Bishop Lee, who has been quoted as saying there are now "Nigerian congregations occupying Episcopal churches." He has asked that, until the property disputes can be settled, the African-affiliated congregations keep uppermost in their minds the spiritual needs of all those concerned -- "especially continuing Episcopalians," he says.
Episcopal News Service points out that, according to ECUSA's constitution and canons, congregational property is held in trust for the diocese, and the diocese holds property in trust for the wider church. Fairfax County records indicate the buildings and land at both Truro and Falls Church are valued at about $25 million.
The denominational news service notes that four other Virginia congregations announced earlier their disaffiliation with the diocese, and that two others have announced their intention to put Episcopal membership to a vote in the future. Associated Press says Episcopal researchers say that nearly 115,000 people left the denomination from 2003 to 2005. Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop, was consecrated in August 2003.
