Episcopal Church wins property battle: CEN 3.25.09

The Episcopal Church has scored another legal win this week in its battle with congregations seeking to quit the church and keep their property. On March 24 a Colorado Springs trial court held that the congregation of Grace Church & St Stephen’s, which in 2007 quit the Diocese of Colorado for the Nigerian-affiliated Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), may not quit the diocese and keep their property.   In a 28 page rule, Judge Larry Schwartz held that trusteeship of the £12 million property should be vested in the portion of the congregation loyal to the diocese. Attorneys for the diocese had argued that a parish is a subsidiary unit of a diocese, and holds property in trust for the diocese.  The parish had argued that under the “neutral principles of law” doctrine ownership should be determined by looking at the underlying title deeds. Grace Church had been incorporated as an independent not for profit corporation and had not deeded its property to the diocese.  Judge Schwartz held that the parish’s “founding documents, various bylaws, relevant canons of the general church and consistent parish loyalty to the diocese over most of its 135 year existence demonstrate a unity of purpose on the part of the parish and of the general church that reflects the intent that all property held by the parish would be dedicated to and utilized for the advancement of the work of [the Episcopal Church].”  “While freedom of religion recognizes the right of any faction within a church to leave that church whenever they choose, the trust that has been created through past generations of members of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s prohibits the departing parish members from taking the property with them,” the court ruled.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.