Word: virginia
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...Virginia case is one of the two most closely watched property disputes in the bitter break-up sparked by disagreement over gay clergy (one which has affected the global Anglican communion). The other, in Long Beach, Calif., was originally decided in favor of the seceding group but overturned on appeal, and is headed for the California State Supreme Court. As a sizable minority of conservative congregations leaves Episcopalianism, the struggle over who gets hundreds of millions of dollars of church property is becoming more and more intense. Passions range so high that the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, the head...
Said Jim Oakes, Vice Chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, a group of secessionist congregations, "I don't want to use the term 'joy' about this. At the risk of sounding Christianesque, we have believed very strongly and soberly that we were [seceding] in obedience to God, and we believe that He is being faithful...
...Judge Bellows' ruling has a second section that apparently requires more deliberation. Henry Burt, a spokesman for the Episcopal Church's Virginia Diocese, which had sued the 11 churches to maintain the property, admitted that "the finding in the case is initially favorable to the [seceding] congregations," but pointed out the judge has specified that the buildings could not change hands unless the second half of his trial determines that the Virginia law is actually constitutional. Hearings on that begin May 28. "And we are confident," says Burt, "that the Virginia law creates issues both with the First Amendment...
...claims that the the agreements binding the rebels' property to it are not just contractual but theological. Therefore, Burt says, for any state government to contravene them "is not just messing with a corporate structure, but messing in a clear and fundamental theological belief." If Judge Bellows decides the Virginia law violates church-state separation it would create a precedent for decisions that would give tremendous authority to Episcopal claims. Should he decide the opposite, it would free seceding churches to appeal under various state laws that might place more emphasis on which group made up the majority...
...course, the seceding congregants could say the same if deprived of the properties, and at least in the 11 Virginia churches, they made up the the congregational majorities. Which group George Washington would belong if he were alive today is unknowable. But like almost everyone else involved, he would no doubt be saddened by the increasing rancor...