Read it all.

St. James’ Senior Pastor, the Rev. Richard Crocker, said, “While it is obviously disappointing, we always felt the court might prefer to wait until the trial proceedings were final. Our battle is far from over. We look forward to having the trial court rule on a written promise from the Episcopal Church in 1991 that they would never lay claim on our property. Our members have engaged in much prayer in order to discern God’s will for our congregation and what His call might be for us. We believe God has asked us to stand steadfast for His Gospel as well as to remain steadfast on this legal battlefield.”

Following is a statement by John Eastman, counsel of record on The Supreme Court petition:

“The Supreme Court normally considers only cases that are final, so it is not surprising that the Court decided to wait until further developments in this case are completed. There are some exceptions to the finality rule that we believe would have permitted review now, but the Court’s decision today does not foreclose review down the road once a full trial of the matter and subsequent appeals in the California Courts have run their course.”
In its June 24, 2009 petition for a writ of certiorari, St. James Church asked The Supreme Court to consider whether the California Supreme Court’s interpretation of a California statute, as giving special power to certain religious denominations to take property they do not own, unconstitutionally establishes certain forms of religion and infringes upon the freedom of local church congregations to exercise their religion without having their property taken by an affiliated denomination.

The Episcopal lawsuits against St. James stemmed from a decision by the members of St. James Church in August 2004 to align themselves with another branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and end the church’s affiliation with the Episcopal Church over core theological differences involving the authority of Holy Scripture and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles sued St. James Church, All Saints Church, Long Beach, CA, and St. David’s Church, No. Hollywood, CA, and over two dozen volunteer board members in September 2004. Subsequently, TEC intervened into the lawsuits against the three local church corporations. Since that time, the case has progressed from the Orange County Superior Court to the California Supreme Court, which decided how such church property disputes would be resolved in California. After a lengthy appeal from an early victory attacking the Episcopal complaints, the case was recently remanded to the Orange County Superior Court for St. James to answer, engage in discovery, and trial.

Eric C. Sohlgren, lead counsel for St. James in the California courts, said, “St. James has followed a steady course since this lawsuit was first filed against them and its church volunteers over five years ago. The reason is that the principles at stake go to the very heart of what Americans hold dear ”“ the right to own property without outside interference and the right to freely exercise one’s religion regardless of belief or faith group. The Episcopal Church hasn’t contributed a dime toward the purchase or maintenance of St. James’ properties or buildings, and they’ve stood on the sidelines while watching the people of St. James carry all of the burdens and benefits of property ownership for decades. In our diverse and freedom-loving land, no one should have their property confiscated over religious belief.”

Today we learned that the United States Supreme Court declined to grant review at this time of the Episcopal Church Cases as decided on an interim appeal by the Supreme Court of California. (The list of petitions denied goes on for some 84 pages, so there is no need to believe St. James was singled out. The Court receives almost 8,000 petitions in the course of one term, and grants review only in about one percent of them.) The denial of review means that the California court’s decision will stand for the time being as the law of the case, which will now work its way toward a trial sometime next year. (If they remain true to form, however, the plaintiffs, the Diocese of Los Angeles and the Episcopal Church (USA), can be expected to file a motion for partial summary judgment in an attempt largely to circumvent a trial.)

The denial does not mean necessarily that the United States Supreme Court will never have anything to say about the case. The decision by the California Supreme Court, as I say, was an interim one. The trial court had struck the complaint of the Diocese, and had dismissed the separate complaint of the Church for failure to state a claim upon which any legal relief could be granted. The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed those two decisions, and the California Supreme Court affirmed the reversals, but partly on different grounds. The effect of the reversals was to send the cases back to the trial court in Orange County, so that the defendant parishes, which in 2004 had voted to leave the Diocese, could answer the complaints and the cases could move forward from there.

Read it all.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that an Anglican congregation must vacate St. Luke’s of Mountain Church on Foothill Boulevard by Oct. 12 so the property’s legal owner, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, can move in the next day.

While the ruling from Judge John Shepard Wiley Jr. set a deadline for the Anglican congregation, the Rev. Rob Holman said he was relieved that it provided at least some breathing room against a previous order from the Episcopal Diocese to vacate by noon Friday.

During an emergency hearing Wednesday, Wiley pushed the move date to Oct. 12 to allow the Anglican congregation time to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to review a similar case involving the St. James Anglican Church in Orange County, Holman said.

A decision from the High Court on whether to hear the case is expected Monday.

Read it all.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce as early as Monday whether it will hear a property-rights case between the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach.

The court’s decision on whether it will hear the case could affect another parish formerly associated with the Episcopal Church: St. Luke’s Anglican Church in La Crescenta.

On Sept. 30, Judge John Shepard Wiley, Jr., of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Fourth Appellate District, ordered St. Luke’s to surrender the church property to the diocese by Oct. 12. The diocese plans to re-establish St. Luke’s-of-the-Mountains Episcopal Church. The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles, will preside at a service of reconciliation at 2 p.m. Oct. 18, the feast day of St. Luke.

Read it all.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered leaders of a former Episcopal church in La Crescenta to turn over church property by Oct. 12 to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, marking the latest wrinkle in a long-running legal dispute.

St. Luke’s Anglican Church and the diocese have been feuding since 2006, when a majority of the parish’s congregants voted to pull out of the diocese and the 2.1-million-member Episcopal Church because of differences over biblical authority and interpretation, including the national church’s decision to consecrate an openly gay bishop.

Read it all.

In truth, our members overwhelmingly elected to leave the Episcopal Church in August 2004 due solely to long-standing theological differences, specifically regarding the authority of Holy Scripture and the Lordship of Christ.

What do those two phrases mean? Authority of Holy Scripture asks, “Does the Bible say what it means and mean what it says?” At St. James we believe that the Holy Bible is God’s word. We take to heart its teachings and do our best to live by its tenets. The lordship of Jesus Christ asks, “Is Jesus who the Bible says he is ”” the son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, who died for our sins, was resurrected, and is with God in heaven?” The Bible teaches this and we believe it to be true.

Over the course of several decades, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national Episcopal Church stepped further away from the Bible’s traditional teachings ”” to the point that many Episcopal leaders now deny Christ’s virgin birth and his resurrection from the dead. Just this month, the presiding bishop of the national Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts-Schori, proclaimed that having a personal relationship with Christ ”” a core tenet of evangelical Christian belief ”” is the “great Western heresy.”

Rhoades also opined that “the Episcopalians want their Newport Beach property back, but St. James is digging in.” Our legal battle is about religious freedom and property rights. Americans hold dear the right to free speech and freedom of religion. People should not have their property confiscated for exercising their religion even if others do not agree with their beliefs. But that is exactly what is happening to St. James. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national Episcopal Church have never held title to the St. James property. The people of St. James bought and paid for every square inch of this property with their tithes and offerings. They alone purchased the pews, the hymnals and the Sunday School booklets. The Episcopalians never paid a penny toward the purchase of the St. James’ property or toward building construction.

Read it all.

The California courts have handed the Episcopal Church and the ACNA a mixed bag of legal decisions this month in the battles over parish property. While both sides have trumpeted the importance of their legal victories, neither ruling is likely to settle the property litigation.

On July 21 the Fresno County Superior Court affirmed its May 5 ruling granting summary judgment in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin in its suit against the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, while an Orange County Court on July 13 dismissed two motions filed by the Diocese of Los Angeles against St James Church in Newport Beach, that challenged the legal sufficiency of the parish’s cause of action in light of the California Supreme Court decision in favor of the Diocese.

Read it all.

Attorneys for the Anglican congregation at the St. Luke’s of the Mountains Church said they intend to appeal a June 9 court decision affirming the Episcopal Diocese’s ownership of the property.

Attorney Daniel Friedman Lula, who represents the Anglican congregation, said he would file a petition for review with the California Supreme Court on Aug. 10.

St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach pursued a similar course, but lost its case before the state high court.

Read it all.

For a Long Beach Anglican church, all eyes will be on Newport Beach in the coming months.

St. James Anglican Church, which made national headlines in 2004 when it joined with All Saints Church in Belmont Heights in a split from the U.S. Episcopal Church, on Wednesday petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by the California Supreme Court.

St. James, which along with All Saints and St. David’s in North Hollywood, has been engaged in a drawn-out property dispute with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles since 2004. It is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the state court decision that it says improperly gives certain religious organizations the power to take property they do not own.

Read it all.

St. James Anglican Church, which is at the center of a nationally publicized church property dispute with The Episcopal Church, today will file a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States. St. James is asking the Court to overturn a prior decision of the California Supreme Court, which conferred a special power on certain religious denominations to take property they do not own simply by passing an internal “rule.” The petition asks the Supreme Court to decide whether, under the U.S. Constitution, certain religious denominations can disregard the normal rules of property ownership that apply to everyone else.

Dr. John Eastman, a nationally recognized constitutional law scholar, has joined the legal team to pursue the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. A response from the Court regarding the St. James petition can be expected as early as October 2009. A decision could be reached as early as mid-2010.

“We will be arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that the California Supreme Court’s interpretation of state law has violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution….”

Read the whole thing.

The Rev. Rob Holman reminded Anglican parishioners to practice love and forgiveness Sunday morning as they reeled from the state Fourth District Court of Appeals’ decision last week to uphold a lower court’s ruling that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is the legal owner of the St. Luke’s of the Mountains Church property on Foothill Boulevard.

Reacting to comments made by the Right Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, to the News-Press regarding the court decision and the church’s future, Holman told parishioners Bruno had been misleading and dishonest.

“God’s timing is kind of interesting to begin 40 Days of Love with the court’s appeal,” Holman said. “This week taught me it’s hard to be loving.”

Read it all.

St. Luke’s of the Mountains Anglican Church lost the court battle over its property this week when the San Diego-based Fourth District Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, stating its right to the land the church sits on and its buildings.

The ruling is the climax to a years-long battle between St. Luke’s and the diocese.

On one side is the 85-year-old St. Luke’s that on Feb. 13, 2006, disassociated itself with Episcopal Church USA and the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and aligned with the African Provence of Uganda in the Diocese of Luwero, with whom St. Luke’s has had a longtime relationship. The St. Luke’s split from the church in Los Angeles represents one of many disaffiliations across the state that made headlines earlier this year. At issue, among others, is the election of V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop elected in 2003 to serve as bishop of New Hampshire.

On the other side is the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, which as a result of St. Luke’s disaffiliation, sued St. Luke’s two months later in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging the church no longer had a right to use the property, based on a 1979 Episcopal Church law which makes all Episcopalian property the property of the diocese.

Read it all.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Friday lost its bid to recover attorneys fees and court costs from the church and some of its members who voted to break away from the Episcopal church in 2004.

The split led to a bitter legal battle over St. James’ Via Lido Campus.

“The local church is free of the specter of attorneys fees and the diocese suffered a significant defeat,” said attorney Daniel Lula, who represents St. James.

Read it all.

(Press Release)

SANTA ANA, Calif. ”“ May 15, 2009 ”“ Orange County Superior Court Judge Thierry P. Colaw today denied a motion by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles which would have forced St. James Church and its volunteer board of directors to pay the Diocese’s attorneys’ fees in this ongoing property dispute.

The case began when St. James Church disaffiliated from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the Episcopal Church over theological differences in August 2004. The Diocese then sued St. James Church, All Saints Church in Long Beach, and St. David’s Church in North Hollywood, and each of their volunteer board members in September 2004. Subsequently, the national Episcopal Church intervened in the lawsuit with its own claims. The three local churches brought special motions to strike the Diocese’s suit under a unique California statute providing for early evaluation of cases involving free speech rights.

The Superior Court initially granted St. James Church’s motion, but the case made its way to the California Supreme Court, which reversed and reinstated the Diocese’s suit. St. James Church recently announced that it will file a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court to seek further appellate review. Even as St. James Church prepares its bid to the United States Supreme Court, the case continues to proceed in the Superior Court.

Today’s motion was a heavy-handed attempt by the Diocese, which has engaged in “scorched earth” litigation tactics against St. James Church for years, to recoup its attorneys’ fees. The Diocese claimed that St. James Church’s earlier special motion to strike was “frivolous” and warranted the sanction of a fees award.

The Superior Court considered briefs filed by both sides and heard oral argument. While the special motion procedure had never before been used in a church property dispute, the Court ruled that it was not frivolous, and had been brought in good faith by experienced and well-qualified defense counsel. As a result, the Court denied the Diocese’s motion for attorneys’ fees and set the case for a further status conference in September.

St. James Church continues to hold services and to operate in its property at 3209 Via Lido in Newport Beach, and remains committed to spreading the Gospel and the traditional Faith.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. ”“ May 5, 2009 ”“ St. James Anglican Church, at the centerpiece of a nationally publicized church property dispute with the Episcopal Church, announced today that it will file a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court to resolve an important issue of religious freedom: Does the United States Constitution, which both prohibits the establishment of religion and protects the free exercise of religion, allow certain religious denominations to disregard the normal rules of property ownership that apply to everyone else?
Under longstanding law, no one can unilaterally impose a trust over someone else’s property without their permission. Yet, in the St. James case before the California Supreme Court, named Episcopal Church Cases, the Court created a special perquisite for certain churches claiming to be “hierarchical,” with a “superior religious body,” which may allow them to unilaterally appropriate for themselves property purchased and maintained by spiritually affiliated but separately
incorporated local churches. St. James will argue before the U.S.Supreme Court that this preferential treatment for certain kinds of religion violates the U.S. Constitution.

The constitutional issues St. James will raise before the U.S. Supreme Court go far beyond St. James or even the Episcopal Church. Every local church, temple, synagogue, parish, spiritual center, congregation or religious group which owns its property, and has some affiliation with a larger religious group, is possibly at risk of losing its property upon a change of religious affiliation. As a result, religious freedom is suppressed, as those who have sacrificed to build their local religious communities are now at risk of having their properties taken based on some past, current or future spiritual affiliation. A United States Supreme Court decision in favor of St.James would benefit local churches and religious groups throughout the country because it would allow congregations the ability to freely exercise their religion without having to forfeit their property to a larger religious body or denomination with which they are affiliated in the event of a dispute over religious doctrine.

While petitions for review with the U.S. Supreme Court are never assured, there are compelling arguments for the Justices to grant this petition, including:

· Dozens of church property cases are percolating in the court
system, lacking clear constitutional direction.

· States are in conflict regarding the handling of church property cases.

· These issues have garnered widespread national attention and
involve important questions of federal constitutional law.

The people of St. James Church have owned and sacrificed to build their church property for many decades, and during that time they have never agreed to relinquish their property to the Episcopal Church upon a change of religious affiliation. St. James has consistently maintained that it has the right to use and possess its own property.

John Eastman, a nationally recognized constitutional law scholar, has
joined the legal team to pursue the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A response from the Court regarding the St. James petition can be
expected as early as October 2009. A decision could be reached as
early as mid-2010.

Even as St. James prepares for a bid on the Supreme Court calendar,
the church’s legal battle has returned to the Orange County Superior
Court. “While we are surprised that the California Supreme Court
would prefer certain religions over others when it comes to property
ownership, the battle in this case is far from over,” said Eric C.
Sohlgren, lead attorney and spokesperson for St. James. “The case has
already returned to the Orange County Superior Court. Because St.
James had an early victory in 2005 by legally attacking the Episcopal
allegations, we now look forward to presenting evidence and additional
legal arguments on behalf of St. James. For example, St. James has
brought a complaint against the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles based
on a 1991 written promise that it would not claim a trust over the
property of St. James on 32nd Street in Newport Beach.”

For more information, please visit the website: www.steadfastinfaith.org

=====================================================================

A Brief Recap: St. James Anglican Church’s Fight to Keep its Property

In August 2004 St. James Church ended its affiliation with the
Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the Episcopal Church over
theological differences involving the authority of Holy Scripture and
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles
brought lawsuits against St. James Church, All Saints Church, Long
Beach, CA, and St. David’s Church, No. Hollywood, CA, and their
volunteer board members in September of 2004. Subsequently, the
national Episcopal Church intervened into the lawsuits against the
three local church corporations and their volunteer board members.

In August 2005 the Honorable David C. Velasquez of the Orange County
Superior Court ruled in favor of St. James Church and struck the
complaint brought by the Diocese of Los Angeles. In October 2005
Judge Velasquez issued a similar ruling in favor of All Saints and St.
David’s Churches. These early victories arose from early challenges
to the two complaints filed by the Diocese and the Episcopal Church,
and as a result, no trial ever occurred. The Episcopalians then
appealed to the California Court of Appeal sitting in Orange County on
this very limited court record, arguing that under neutral principles
of law they had a probability of prevailing and had alleged legally
viable claims.

In July 2007 the Court of Appeal rejected nearly thirty years of
California church property law by ruling that a secular court must
defer to the determinations of the highest level of the church
hierarchy regarding ownership of local church property, regardless of
any agreements between the parties, the corporate documents, who paid
for the property, or who held the deed. The Court of Appeal reversed
the trial court judgment in favor of St. James, and ordered the case
back to the trial court.

In August 2007 St. James filed a petition with the California Supreme
Court, which the Court unanimously and quickly accepted under the name
of Episcopal Church Cases. The Court heard oral argument in the case
in October 2008.

In January 2009 the California Supreme Court ruled in Episcopal Church
Cases that church property disputes in California must be resolved by
neutral or non-religious principles of law, not by civil courts merely
deferring to the decrees of church “hierarchies” or larger church
bodies. As a result, every church property dispute in California now
will be resolved based on non-religious factors that are unique to the
dispute. While adopting this non-religious method of resolving
property disputes between churches, however, the Court seemed to defer
to the Episcopal Church’s alleged “trust canon,” which purports to
create a trust interest in church property owned by local
congregations. The Court made its ruling despite the fact that St.
James purchased and maintained its property with its own funds and has
held clear record title to its property for over fifty years. St.
James believes that this ruling overlooked decades of trust law in
California that only allows the owner of property to create a trust in
favor of someone else, and will as a result have wide impact for local
church property owners throughout California that seek to change their
religious affiliation.

In late January 2009 St. James formally asked the California Supreme
Court to modify its January decision.

In February 2009 the California Supreme Court granted the St. James
request, and modified its decision to confirm both that the suit
against St. James is not over and that no decision on the merits of
the case has yet been made. Instead, the Court clarified that its
decision was only based on the limited record before it, which will
now be augmented through the normal discovery and trial process.

In late February 2009, the case against St. James Church corporation, the volunteer board members, and clergy returned to the trial court in Orange County where St. James can assert factual and legal arguments that were not addressed on appeal through discovery, depositions, motions, and trial. Using the legal standard set forth by the California Supreme Court, the Orange County Superior Court will eventually decide the merits of this dispute. For example, St. James has brought a complaint against the Diocese of Los Angeles based on a 1991 written promise that it would not claim a trust over the property of St. James on 32nd Street in Newport Beach.

In May 2009, St. James will plan to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. A response from the Court regarding its decision to hear St. James’s petition can be expected by October 2009. The Justices could render by mid-2010.

In a move an attorney for St. James Anglican Church called “threatening and bullying behavior,” the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles will try to recover attorneys fees and court costs from the church and some of its members who voted to break away from the Episcopal Church in 2004, resulting in a bitter legal battle over St. James’ Via Lido campus.

“They are doing this so no one ever dares leave the Episcopal hierarchy ever again,” said attorney Daniel Lula, who represents St. James.

Read it all.

Back in 2003, the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York consecrated a gay bishop and allowed others to perform same-sex blessings.

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, an Episcopal parish at the time, disagreed with this move and severed ties. Last year, the Diocese sued for Good Shepherd to leave the church building on Conklin Avenue, and in December, a state Supreme Court judge ruled in their favor.

On Friday, both sides were back in court.

“We’ve kind of moved on as a congregation and this is almost looking backwards now. So we were dreading it but here it is,” said Father Matthew Kennedy, Good Shepherd’s head pastor.

This time, the feud centers around a will by former Good Shepherd member Robert Brannan. He died in 1986 and left behind money in a trust fund for his parish.

Read it all.

In what can be described only as a somewhat terse performance by its collective justices, the California Supreme Court has corrected a rather glaring error in its prior opinion in The Episcopal Church Cases, 45 Cal.4th 467 (2009). It has published a short per curiam (meaning: unsigned) order, which it says does not affect its earlier judgment. But since the order has no byline, and carries no explanation, its significance is easy to miss.

Those to my left have, as usual, jumped to totally unwarranted conclusions. Out of the three sentences used by the Court to describe what it was doing, they select only this one: “The [local churches’] petition for rehearing is denied.” Then they trumpet headlines like “California breakaway churches lose in court again”. What they ignore are these words: “Request for modification granted. . . The opinion is modified.” (Emphasis added.) If I were to read things as one-sidedly as they do, I could have titled this post: “California orthodox churches win in Supreme Court”; or (only slightly less outrageous) “Supreme Court concedes mistake in prior ruling in favor of ECUSA”. I have decided instead to reach two birds with just one cast, and call what has happened in both the Supreme Court and on liberal blogs “rushing to judgment”.

Read it carefully and follow all the links.

[Richard] Crocker added that the congregation would consider its options but that reconciliation was unlikely.

“Our disagreements [with the Episcopal Church] are profound,” he said in an interview. Parishioners at St. James, he said, are “convinced of the appropriateness of the decision [to leave] and will see it through….”

Forty miles to the north, near the end of Sunday’s service at St. John’s, Kowalewski sounded a different theme: He said the Episcopal Church was “not a collective of individual operators.”

Kowalewski read a letter from the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, the bishop of the Los Angeles diocese, saying, “The Episcopal Church continues its long tradition of welcoming among its members a diversity of opinion, including loyal dissent. Our church remains a large tent expansive enough to include many views and voices while united in common prayer.”

After the service at St. John’s, just blocks from USC, congregants said they were hopeful the disaffiliated parishes would return to the church.

“I think you can have diverse opinions,” said Karen Uhler, 68.

Read it all.

Read it all.

A few minutes ago, I received a letter from Saddleback’s Rick Warren, who many conservative Anglicans realize has been extremely supportive of their cause.

Read it all.

The lawyer representing a local church attempting to retain its property after breaking away from the national Episcopal Church says reports of the demise of the parish in Belmont Heights are premature.

On Monday, the California Supreme Court upheld an appeals court ruling that St. James Parish of Newport Beach, which broke away from the Episcopal Church in conjunction with All Saints of Belmont Heights and St. David’s Church of North Hollywood in 2004, did not have the right to retain the property when it disaffiliated.

While that ruling has been widely interpreted as a defeat for all three of the breakaway churches, Lynn Moyer says that’s not the case.

“Our case hasn’t been heard yet,” said Moyer, who represents All Saints and St. David’s. “This isn’t over by any means.”

Read it all.

The California Supreme Court has issued a double-edged verdict in the Episcopal Church property cases, handing both the Diocese of Los Angeles and three breakaway parishes a defeat in their bids to control disputed church properties.

By a vote of 6 to 0 — with the seventh judge issuing a separate opinion that agreed with the ruling but rejected the legal arguments of the majority — the California Supreme Court rejected the Episcopal Church’s arguments that the state must defer to the church in adjudicating church property disputes. The judges held that California courts must use “neutral principles” of law to resolve church property dispute — giving no deference to claims made by the church hierarchy not found in the underlying title and corporate charters.

Read it all.

“If I were in litigation in another state I would certainly point to this and say, ‘Hey, this is what another state’s Supreme Court said,'” said Robert W. Tuttle, a church-state expert at the George Washington University Law School.

Tuttle and others cautioned, however, that these kinds of property decisions tend to turn on facts specific to the case at hand.

The Rev. Peter Frank, spokesman for the Anglican Church in North America, the conservative rival province that was launched in December, said he doesn’t expect Monday’s rulings to staunch the conservative exodus.

“People that have made the choice to be mainstream Anglicans are unlikely to be sued back into a group they disagree with just because a panel of judges tells them they don’t actually own the candlesticks on the altar,” Frank said.

Read it all.

“We are hopeful that this decision will help to bring remaining property litigation in California and elsewhere to a speedy conclusion,” said a statement issued Monday by the office of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

But leaders of the breakaway diocese said the case remains far from settled.

“This will impact our case, but there’s no precedent for a diocese or dioceses leaving a national denomination,” said the Rev. Bill Gandenberger, assistant to Bishop John-David Schofield, leader of the breakaway diocese.

Read it all.

A Newport Beach parish’s fight to keep church property it claims belongs to the congregation may go as high as the U.S. Supreme Court after the state Supreme Court rejected its argument, an attorney for parishioners of St. James Anglican Church said Monday.

“I do know that the people of St. James have continued to reflect upon their decision in 2004 to change religious affiliation and still have a very strong view,” said Eric Sohlgren, representing the parish. “We’ll just have to see how it unfolds in the courts and where we go from here.”

The California State Supreme Court ruled Monday that St. James worshipers do not own the church property they’ve worshiped on for more than 50 years because when they decided to split from the general Episcopal Church almost five years ago, it violated an agreement with the larger church and forfeited the rights to the property.

Read it all.

In a brief interview with a reporter for The Living Church shortly after the decision was announced on Jan. 5, Bishop Bruno said he was “overjoyed” at the verdict and considered all issues at dispute to be decided in their favor. Bishop Bruno said his next step will be to initiate dialogue individually with the clergy and lay leadership of the three churches in the hope that it will lead to reconciliation and perhaps the eventual voluntary return of those congregations to The Episcopal Church.

“I want to see if they are willing to talk; to see if they want to return to The Episcopal Church,” Bishop Bruno said. He added that the offer of dialogue carried no preconditions.

“Attorneys handle legal issues,” he said. “This is now a pastoral issue.”

Read the whole article.

When the Rev. Jose Poch learned a high court ruling Monday could spell eviction of his 78-year-old parish from St. David’s Church, he was prepared to pack his bags and Bibles.

The California Supreme Court unanimously decided that a breakaway parish like his could not hang onto church property.

“We have to find a place,” said Poch, rector of the North Hollywood church. “We must worship the Lord in any way we can.”

The court ruled that St. David’s and two other Southern California parishes that split from the U.S. Episcopal Church over its ordination of [noncelibate] gay ministers cannot retain ownership of church buildings and property.

Read it all.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. ”“ January 5, 2009 ”“ The California Supreme Court today ruled in Episcopal Church Cases that church property disputes must be resolved by “neutral principles of law,” not by civil courts merely deferring to the decrees of church “hierarchies.” This ruling has wide and favorable impact for churches throughout California that seek to change their denominational affiliation.

While adopting this “non-religious” method of resolving property disputes between churches, the Court seemed to defer to the Episcopal Church’s alleged “trust canon,” which purports to create a trust interest in church property owned by local congregations. The Court made its ruling despite the fact that St. James Anglican Church, Newport Beach, purchased and maintained its property with its own funds and has held clear record title to its property for over fifty years.

In recent years, religious denominations as diverse as the Eastern Orthodox, Baptist and Pentecostal “Assemblies of God” have attempted to confiscate the property of congregations that wish to change their spiritual affiliation. Today’s ruling falls far short of the endorsement of such tactics that the Episcopal Church ”“ and other denominational hierarchies that submitted briefs in support of it ”“ had sought. Many local churches in California will be able to exercise their religious freedom to change their affiliation without having to forfeit their property as a result.

Nor is the saga over for St. James Anglican Church. “While we are surprised that the Court seemed to give some credence to the Episcopal Church’s purported rule confiscating local church property, the battle is far from over,” lead attorney Eric C. Sohlgren said. “The matter will now return to the Orange County Superior Court for further proceedings, and we look forward to presenting evidence and additional legal arguments that St. James Church should prevail under neutral principles of law.”

The leadership of the Newport Beach congregation is also evaluating a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and is meeting to discuss other possible steps. Today’s ruling also affects All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. David’s Church in North Hollywood, whose cases were put on hold pending the outcome of the St. James case. Together with St. James Church, these congregations never agreed to relinquish their property to the Episcopal Church upon changing their affiliation, and have consistently maintained that they have the right to use and possess the property which they have owned and maintained for decades.