A property rights battle over the historic St. John’s Parish has ended years after a schism erupted within the Episcopal Church when part of the congregation opposed the church’s acceptance of gay pastors.
Superior Court Judge Roger Ross on April 4 awarded the parish in downtown Stockton to the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.
The group that had broken away from the diocese – most of them with a history of multiple past generations in the Episcopal Church – and became aligned with the more conservative Anglican Church of North America was ordered out of the building in the ruling.
Too bad, but our prayers and thanksgiving for the sacrifice of the true congregation of St Johns who were prepared to fight for the property. By so doing, they gave valuable public testimony of what they believe.
Now that the liberal rump of Dio San Joaquin have succeeded at law, the faithful Anglicans will have to establish themselves somewhere else, which they can do. The rump are left with an empty property and the maintenance costs – no doubt the building will eventually be sold to a secular or Moslem group as TEC has done in the past. Very sad, but the real church is not tied to buildings.