We learned this afternoon that Judge Thomas J. Ortbal of the circuit court in Adams County has ruled against the diocese and the Episcopal Church in our efforts to recover assets that we believe rightfully belong to the church.
This ruling is the most recent action in legal proceedings that began in March 2009. At issue are an endowment fund that has been frozen, the former diocesan office building adjacent to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Peoria and the principle that churches such as ours have the right to determine how we organize and govern ourselves….
Bishop Lee, you lost. You people also lost in South Carolina and Texas, and the chances of your losing again are increasing. Neutral principles of law are increasingly coming into play as judges are much more closely examining evidence, as Judge Ortbal has done, and there is no longer any assurance that you will win, as your Presiding Bishop has heretofore so confidently assumed.
From the Living Church article [blockquote]The statement noted that “preliminary financial analysis has suggested that increased costs from the reunion will be offset by additional income from endowment funds and other assets which the Diocese of Quincy will bring into a reunited Diocese.†[/blockquote]
Interesting…… once again TEC is assuming that the Diocese of Quincy will bring endowment funds and other assets into the newly formed diocese. Given that TEC has lost in this round and may lose even on appeal, I wonder how the “reunion” might look financially if those endowment funds are not included….. Methinks they have leaped before they took a good look! 😉
And there is a deep dark pit at the bottom of that leap.
Quite possibly, Cennydd13!
Quincy was a small diocese to begin with, and found itself under siege from TEC for 15 years prior to its departure. By that time, it was one of TEC’s smallest diocese. I haven’t lived in Chicago for 25 years, but I imagine it still has parishes with more members than TEC-Quincy had prior to the merger.
I don’t know how large Quincy’s endowment is, but certainly the diocesan real estate (the Diocesan House and a few bits here and there- that is, exclusive of the parish property) is not worth a fraction of the monetary value of the average Chicago parish church. Certainly a mere fraction of what TEC has spent over the last 5 years in legal fees trying to seize it.
I am grateful to God that this tragedy brought us the resplendent witness of Bishop Keith Ackerman of Quincy, who is ministering still to so many.