U.S. Supreme Court denies petition to hear La Crescenta property case

[The Episcopal News, Los Angeles, March 1, 2010] - The U.S. Supreme Court today announced that it has denied a petition to hear an appeal from a breakaway congregation seeking claim to the property of St. Luke's Episcopal Church of La Crescenta, California.

The court posted its action, together with dozens of other petitions denied, on its web site. Meeting in conference on Feb. 26, the high court declined to hear the petition filed by St. Luke's Anglican Church of La Crescenta, whose members voted in 2004 to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles.

The property, a landmark stone church complex at 2563 Foothill Blvd., was returned to the Diocese of Los Angeles by court order on Oct. 12, 2009, following the California State Supreme Court's Jan. 5, 2009 ruling affirming that Episcopal Church property is held in trust for the mission of the local diocese and the wider church.

A statement from the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the six-county Diocese of Los Angeles, follows here:

"I thank the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court for their clarity in declining to hear an appeal regarding Episcopal Church property in La Crescenta, California, which has served local residents for more than 80 years.

"Likewise, last October, the U.S. Supreme Court also declined to hear a similar case involving Episcopal Church property occupied by a breakaway congregation in Newport Beach.

"This matter was decided by the California State Supreme Court in its January 5, 2009 opinion affirming that Episcopal Church property is held in trust by a local parish for the present and future ministry of the Diocese and the wider church.

"We now await the California Court of Appeal ruling for enforcement of this decision -- which was requested by the Diocese before the Court on November 17, 2009 -- and the Superior Court's subsequent action that will begin an orderly transition bringing the properties in Newport Beach, Long Beach and North Hollywood into direct administration by the Diocese of Los Angeles.

"I remain hopeful that it will be possible for Christian reconciliation and healing to occur in these contexts, and I look forward to an end to the costly litigation that has spanned more than five and a half years.

"I ask for the diocesan community's continuing prayers with regard to these matters."

END

PS When VOL obtains newws from St. Luke's we will publish it immediately.

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The Supreme Court Ruling

See page 3 of 20 pages in today's Supreme Court Actions

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/030110zor.pdf

CERTIORARI DENIED

ST. LUKE'S OF THE MOUNTAINS V. EPISCOPAL CHURCH
09-712

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LA CRESCENTA: High court won't hear church's case
Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has the right to restore St. Luke's under its authority.

By Jason Wells
http://glendalenewspress.com/articles/2010/03/02/news/gnp-decision030210.txt
March 1, 2010

The breakaway Anglican congregation that was forced to move out of the historic St. Luke's church on Foothill Boulevard hit a legal wall Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.

The California Supreme Court last year upheld a Los Angeles County Superior Court ruling in 2007 that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles had the right to restore the St. Luke's church under its authority after the Anglican congregation severed ties several years earlier.

The Anglican congregation, which was forced to vacate the property months later, petitioned the Supreme Court in December, seeking an opinion on whether the state court decision violated the First Amendment.

With the high court declining to review the matter, the St. Luke's Anglican Church would now shift its focus off the protracted legal battle and onto securing more permanent worship facilities, said the Rev. Robert Holman.

"We're functioning as a church, just without the property," he said. "The church, in the end, is the people. This is regroup time."

The congregation has been renting space from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Glendale, and recently signed a lease for an office on Foothill Boulevard, he said.

"We lost the property, and we're moving on," Holman said.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Monday released a statement affirming its property rights on all parish assets. Breakaway congregations have argued that, after spending decades using and maintain their facilities, they are the owners. But the courts have so far ruled that the properties are essentially held in trust by a parish under the wider church.

A similar effort by the breakaway St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach failed last year, and the diocese is awaiting court decisions for bringing other parish properties in Long Beach and North Hollywood under its direct control.

In the statement from the diocese, Bishop J. Jon Bruno said he was "hopeful that it will be possible for Christian reconciliation and healing to occur in these contexts, and I look forward to an end to the costly litigation that has spanned more than five-and-a-half years."