Quincy Dioceses files lawsuit against Episcopal Church: CEN 4.03.09 p 6.

The breakaway Diocese of Quincy has filed suit against the Episcopal Church in an Illinois Court, asking the court to clarify its rights to the name and assets of the diocese.

“We hoped from the beginning to avoid any legal action,” the President of Quincy’s Standing Committee, Fr. John Spencer said on March 31. However, preliminary moves by the national church to seize the diocese’s bank accounts prompted the court filing, he said.

Attorneys for the national church in January wrote to the bank that manages the diocese’s endowment funds, stating that the breakaway diocese no longer had a claim on the funds and that its officers should not be permitted to disperse the funds. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote the members of the Standing Committee in February informing them that she no longer “recognized” them as officers of the diocese.

However, under the church’s canons, “she has no authority to make such a judgment,” Fr Spencer said. “The governing officers of each diocese have always been elected at the local level, and the General Convention officers in New York have no say in the matter,” he argued.

Publication of the Episcopal Church’s national legal strategy in March that would “craft a lawsuit that is trim and focused on the critical claims involving ownership and possession of diocesan property” in the breakaway dioceses prompted Quincy’s decision to seek protection from the courts.

“It was clear,” Fr. Spencer said, “that a law suit was heading our way. From suits they have filed elsewhere, we know Episcopal Church leaders will start by trying to seize our funds, and eventually try to take our churches.”

At its November 2008 synod, Quincy joined Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and San Joaquin in quitting the Episcopal Church and affiliating with the Province of the Southern Cone, and is expected to be one of the founding dioceses of the third province Anglican Church in North America at its June convocation in Bedford, Texas. The diocese is currently without a bishop, as the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman stepped down from office last year.

Quincy is asking the Illinois courts for a “declaratory judgment,” that lays out the rights, duties and obligations of the diocese under law—a process that may take several years, should the parties appeal unfavorable decisions. The Quincy case raised to 57 the number of property lawsuits between dioceses, parishes and the national church that have appeared before US state courts.