Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph James has issued an order detailing which assets are among the centrally held properties that he earlier awarded to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh rather than to the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, which broke from the Episcopal Church in 2008.
The order, issued Friday, doesn’t apply to parish property, which is to be negotiated later. Leaders of the Anglican diocese had earlier said that they would appeal the October decision. The Rev. Mary Hays, canon to the ordinary of the Anglican diocese, said the appeal can be filed now that this order has been issued.
The original diocese split when a majority of clergy and laity at its 2008 convention voted to leave the Episcopal Church over theological differences. Prior to the split, some parishes now in the 28-parish Episcopal diocese sued for the property of the 57-parish Anglican diocese. The funds have been frozen by financial institutions until the litigation is resolved.
While it’s true that the order doesn’t apply to parish property, it’s worth noting that it does point out that the buildings used by several realigned parishes are not parish property but diocesan property, ie property of the Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church. The last page of the report is a list of 45 properties ‘Deeded to the Board of Trustees for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh’ which includes the property of some of the biggest parishes of the realigned diocese, like St Philip’s Moon. Not all the properties are those of active parishes, but over half of them are, and this presumably means that the buildings are now under the control of the Episcopal Diocese.
Even more interesting, it appears (to a non-lawyer’s eye, at least) that the second paragraph of the stipulation, which provides a way for parishes to leave with their property and the newspaper report says is to be negotiated later, will not apply to them, since the paragraph refers only to property ‘specifically held for or in the name of the Parish Church’.
The stipulation which Bishop Duncan agreed to in 2005 can be found on Lionel Deimel’s weblog:
http://deimel.org/commentary/b_pages/stipulation.pdf
Seems to me that Bishop Duncan made a mistake in signing this and now the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh will have to live with it.
This case has nothing to do with the Dennis Canon. Just the stipulation of 2005.
It is really irrelevant whether or how a parish is covered under the Stipulation. By now it should be clear to everyone that TEC will attempt to recover every parish via any available legal means. Recovering the money, assests and buildings is clearly the number one objective of TEC Pittsburgh. The parishoners, if they are of the right sort, would be a bonus…
What happened to the appeal they said they were filing in October?
http://pittsburghanglican.org/?p=press
Hard to fathom that the Church would not simply permit people who leave to form other churches take whatever they want.
NoVA Scout :
This decision merely said that Bishop Duncan and his diocese has to follow the stipulations which he and his diocese agreed to in 2005.
I do not understand why Bishop Duncan’s diocese signed that stipulation, but once they did they are bound to it.
I hope they honor their agreement and let both sides get on with their respective ministries.