Nearly a dozen conservative church congregations in Virginia have won a lawsuit in which they sought to split from the U.S. Episcopal Church in a dispute over theology and homosexuality.
The final rulings came Friday from a Fairfax County judge who said the departing congregations are allowed under Virginia law to keep their church buildings and other property as they leave the Episcopal Church and realign under the authority of conservative Anglican bishops from Africa.
Several previous rulings had also gone in favor of the departing congregations. The diocese said it will appeal.
This actually seems like a very fair and objective report. There’s no sensationalizing or indulging in speculation, just a clear, balanced reporting of the facts. How refreshing for the MSM, MainStream Media, to do a credible job in a sensitive case like this. Bravo for the Associated Press.
David Handy+
[i]”Within the Episcopal Church, we may have theological disagreements, but those disagreements are ours to resolve according to the rules of our own governance,”[/i] to quote +Lee.
The court was not addressing a theological disagreement. It was a property dispute arising from split in responses to irreconcilable differences in theology.
+Lee’s statement is as vacuous as it would be were he to claim that because his church has a theological position and a policy prohibiting divorce … that the courts have no right to impose a property settlement when a couple with irreconcilable differences actually does divorce.
For the church to say there can be no split because we have stated there’s no such thing as irreconcilable differences — and that because there can be no split the civil courts have no role … is merely silly.
[blockquote]those disagreements are ours to resolve according to the rules of our own governance[/blockquote]More mendacity from Virginia’s failed bishop Peter James Lee. The departing congregations sought to resolve the property issues using the governance structures of the diocese, through negotiating a mutually agreed-upon outcome. It was Peter Lee who decided to throw this thing into the civil courts with his shameful lawsuits.
Not only is the court not pressing any theological point on DioVA in settling this real estate ownership issue, it did not press the case on the DioVA. It was DioVA that ditched the protocol and ran to the court pleading for its judgement. Now it cannot accept that judgement and is set to run to another court to bring down yet more judgement on its head. Certain is this: what a sad witness to the world.
Is it being suggested that the Church not hold real property in accordance with secular propety laws? How then should a property dispute be settled? By force of arms?