US church legal costs declining, presiding bishop claims: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 29, 2010 p 7.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has dismissed claims the legal campaign waged against traditionalists has been suicidal for the Episcopal Church, stating the funds expended on litigation have actually declined in recent years.

In her opening address to members of the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council, meeting Oct 23-25 in Salt Lake City, Bishop Jefferts Schori castigated the church’s governing board for “committing suicide by governance.”

Tensions between the board and staff at the national church headquarters had led to a “sometimes rather adversarial attitude” arising from “confusion about roles,” the presiding bishop said, according to an account printed by the Episcopal News Service.

“Sometimes committees try to do the work of staff,” she said, as the members of the executive council “sometimes forgets that its job is about policy-making and accountability.”

Asked at a post-meeting press conference whether the church’s suicide was by litigation, which had drained the church’s coffers, the presiding bishop responded this was not so.  “Our legal costs have gone down in the past couple of years,” she said.

However, according to an analysis performed by canon lawyer Allan Haley, the national church and its dioceses have dedicated over $21,650,000 to lawsuits and disciplinary actions against the clergy.

The “amounts spent or budgeted for litigation with other Christians [from] 2001-2012 [was] $12,739,584,” Mr. Haley estimated.  Approximately $6 million has been spent by the dioceses of Virginia, San Diego and Los Angeles, while a further $2,133,000 has been expended in legal proceedings against dissident clergy since 2006, and $1 million has been budgeted for the next three for these purposes, he said

The national church has declined to respond to questions on litigation expenses, while a resolution presented to the church’s 2009 General Convention asking for a detailed accounting was rejected.

Mr. Haley told the Church of England Newspaper that there were “lots of ways to compare numbers.”  The presiding bishop’s claim could be defended, he suggested, by saying the value of legal services “donated back” to the church by its lawyers had declined from $1.136 million in 2007 to $932,000 in 2009, or by a decline in the nine year average of expenditures, compared to the amount budgeted in the coming three years.

However, most likely the presiding bishop “could be expressing her confidence that the $3 million budgeted for 2010-2012 will hold, and the result will be less spending than in the last triennium: $5,309,584” plus the $3 million in donated services.

Mr. Haley was not optimistic the church’s legal costs would be declining in the short run, however.  “Look for Virginia spending to mount way up again soon, and Fort Worth, Pittsburgh and San Joaquin will each be claiming their toll again in a few more months, as well.