Sometimes a news story drags on bit by bit, piece by piece, over the years and becomes so tedious that reporters miss the dramatic cumulative impact. It also doesn’t help that long, slow-developing, nuanced religion stories have been known to turn secular editors into pillars of salt.
So it seems with the lawsuits against conservative congregations and regional dioceses that have been quitting the Episcopal Church, mostly to join the Anglican Church in North America, especially since consecration of the first openly partnered gay bishop in 2003.
The Religion Guy confesses he totally missed the eye-popping claim last year that the denomination has spent more than $40 million on lawsuits to win ownership of the dropouts’ buildings, properties, and liquid assets. If that’s anywhere near accurate it surely sets the all-time record for American schisms. And that doesn’t even count the millions come-outers have spent on lawyers.
Interesting comment – the Curmudgeon’s figures about the size and extent of the law suits is starting to gain traction with many in the liberal camp.
One of the commenters makes an amusing rejoinder to one of the others:
[blockquote] “As to your illustration, if your administrative assistant (who in this case was paying you, not the other way around) paid for the desk, computer and file cabinets with their own funds, as is the case with the departing dioceses, of course they have a right to take their property.” [/blockquote]
What more people are finally starting to understand is that TEC’s legal case against dioceses is actually very weak, despite the particular victory in Pittsburgh.