THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH WILL BANKRUPT ORTHODOX PARISHES THAT OPPOSE THEM

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
July 2, 2007

The strategy of Episcopal Church leaders, lead by Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori and her attorney David Booth Beers, is to go after orthodox dioceses and churches and litigate them into bankruptcy rather than allowing them to leave the Episcopal Church with their properties, says the president and CEO of the American Anglican Council (AAC).

Canon David C. Anderson told VirtueOnline that it is now apparent that the strategy of Mr. Beers is to spend millions of dollars, or whatever it takes, to keep properties from leaving the grip of the Episcopal Church. Liberal dioceses, with the assistance of the national church, will sue repeatedly until they win.

"The Episcopal Church (TEC) will probably sue everyone - that is to be expected. Even if TEC can't win consistently on law or on facts, it appears that they will sue anyway, to bankrupt parish churches and perhaps dioceses in legal defense. If a church or diocese can't afford to stay in court, however well they may (or may not) have law or facts on their side, they lose by default," he wrote in the AAC's weekly email message to subscribers.

Diocesan Bishop J. Jon Bruno has sued three orthodox parishes formerly in the Diocese of Los Angeles for their property. St. James Church had successfully won the right to retain their properties in two lawsuits in a lower court decision, but recently faced another round of litigation with the diocese winning on appeal.

Since the Court of Appeals decision went against two other California Court of Appeals decisions, one in 1981 and one in 2004 the California law is now in confusion. The case will need to go forward to the State Supreme Court.

In a victory for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, a three-judge state appeals panel upheld the diocese's claim to the buildings and other property. of three conservative parishes that had severed their ties with the diocese.

The unanimous decision by a panel of the appeals court in Santa Ana reversed lower court rulings in the case impacts St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. David's Church in North Hollywood.

"I believe this is a conclusive statement that the property will come back to us and that the lower court will be directed by this opinion," said Bruno.

Eric Sohlgren, lead lawyer for the three parishes, called the decision an anomaly, saying it ran counter to what he described as nearly 30 years of legal precedent in California. "Church property disputes have been looked at through neutral principles: who has the title to the property, who bought it, who maintains it and what state statutes say," he said.

"What the court said here was that if a hierarchical church wants to take control of local church property, all it has to do is pass a rule." Another parish, St. John's Fallbrook, and its priest, the Rev. Don Kroeger, face a third round of litigation from revisionist San Diego Bishop James Robert Mathes.

Twice the courts have rebuffed the diocese in its attempt to take the property back from the parish and its priest. In a letter to the clergy of the diocese, Mathes said that when canon law is breached and "all efforts to remedy the violation are rebuffed, it is necessary to use the civil courts."

Said Anderson, "This raises the serious question as to where the Episcopal Church is getting the money from to do all this litigation. Will someone crack open the Church Pension Fund and raid the pensions of liberals and conservatives to fund the litigation? Only time will tell.

Will someone crack open the Trust Funds of TEC and use their money for the litigation?" Two things are certain, TEC will continue litigating, and the faithful will not be deterred by such action, Anderson stated.

"It is a tragedy of the first order that a presiding bishop who preaches the "gospel" of Millennium Development Goals to save the poorest of the poor, is willing to spend millions of dollars litigating for properties that, at the end of the day, may only have a dozen people left in them."

Anderson cited the example of St. Paul's, Brockton, Mass. a parish that left the Episcopal Church and tried to retain the property and buildings that housed a massive social outreach to the community.

Activist pro-gay bishop Tom Shaw spent $2 million to keep the buildings from falling into the hands of its rector, the Rev. Dr. James Hiles, but the victory was pyrrhic and short lived. Hiles took 98% of the congregation and left to plant a new church. The church has a mere dozen parishioners left. St. Paul's "famed" kitchen, which fed hundreds each week, was shut down in 2005 for sanitary reasons. Rodents and fire caused eviction of the only ethnic group from the education building in 2006. A "For Sale" sign can now be seen out front of the building. The full story can be accessed here: http://tinyurl.com/3cynx3

"Mrs. Schori keeps reiterating that parishes are held in trust for future generations of Episcopalians, but there seems to be very little evidence that there will be future generations of Episcopalians.

There are less than 800,000 practicing Episcopalians now and that figure is dropping almost weekly with fleeing parishes and parishioners," said Anderson.

Anderson, whose organization represents some 80,000 constituents across the U.S. believes that a major exodus of Episcopalians will begin after the Sept. 30 deadline set by the Primates in Tanzania requesting the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops to "make an unequivocal common covenant" that they will not authorize same-gender blessings or confirm a candidate for bishop who is living in a same-gender relationship.

They also asked that no consents be given such a person unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion. "Based on the evidence and the actions of recent HOB meetings it is clear that the TEC has no intention of honoring that request. As a result more people will leave The Episcopal Church including the possibility of whole dioceses," said Anderson.

"It is clear we are reaching a point of critical mass. The Diocese of San Joaquin will vote one way or another to leave later this year. The Diocese of Albany will call a special convention after Sept. 30. Does Mr. Beers think he can litigate against entire dioceses as well as just parishes? If he does it will be a public relations disaster of the first order, reported in all the major media throughout the country.

Whatever happens, faithful Episcopalians will continue to leave with or without their parishes and form new ecclesial bodies and no amount of litigation will bring them back." Anderson went on to say that he is encouraged by the actions of faithful orthodox Episcopalians.

"The orthodox have all been wanting a new Province, but the question is how to get from where we are to where we need to be. We are seeing the birthing of what will be the future House of Bishops of a new entity, albeit a little ways still down the road. One of the dilemmas of being Anglican is that we need bishops, both for sacraments and for bold orthodox leadership, and we need a critical mass to be acquired to help things really move.

With new bishops being consecrated, together with the Anglican Communion Network bishops who might with their dioceses choose to realign away from TEC, a critical mass would be in place for some dramatic things to happen.

"I believe some exciting things are ahead. I am encouraging people to be optimistic, though real battles are obviously also ahead. At the end of the day the issues will not be about money and buildings, but 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints.'"

"Mr. Beers may bankrupt churches, even dioceses, but he and the leadership of the Episcopal Church cannot or will not stop the ongoing hemorrhaging of The Episcopal Church," concluded Anderson.

The American Anglican Council is a founding signatory to Common Cause Partners, and as a non-judicatory is present as an advocacy, educational, informational and diplomatic organization.

The AAC has 27 AAC regional chapters, 333 official affiliate parishes and 39 affiliate ministries and reaches 43,000 individuals through its Encompass newsletter. A weekly electronic update goes out to more than 23,000 email addresses.

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