Posted on 01/13/2006 11:32:19 AM PST by PAR35
SANTA ANA - An Orange County judge dismissed Thursday the last of the lawsuits seeking the return of property from three churches that split from the Episcopal Church to place themselves under a conservative Ugandan bishop.
Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez dismissed suits by the Protestant Episcopal Church USA against St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints in Long Beach and St. David's in North Hollywood.
Velasquez had dismissed those claims in October, but allowed lawyers to amend the complaints.
However, in a ruling issued Thursday, Velasquez found that the national church "has not added anything legally material" to the original complaints.
Velasquez dismissed suits by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles against the churches last year.
In his rulings, Velasquez said that neither the local diocese nor the national church has a rightful claim on land, buildings or items such as hymnals and prayer books used in worship by the congregations of the three churches.
(Excerpt) Read more at virtueonline.org ...
One of you all want to ping this around with the Anglican ping list?
Good news...
Hey I wonder what would happen as a result of this case if there was a schism in the Roman Catholic Church---the biggest property owner among religious denominations. According to Canon Law--the parishes belong to the dioceses. I wonder if the court would just give canon law a Bronx cheer if this situation arose among Catholics?
According to at least one bankruptcy court, RC canon law isn't relevant to the analysis. For a story out of Oregon, see:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1552569/posts
The courts are moving toward treating church real property like anyone else's real property. Look at the deeds, trust agreeemnts, etc. Even the recent Pennsylvaina court which ruled for the Episcopal bishop looked at the language in the church charter although there was troubling language in the decision.
News flash. Canon law is irrelevant in US courts.
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Apparently Canon is irrelevant in ECUSA.
Ping.
Thanks. It appears that this has become a settled issue in Calif.
I hope their view of trustee holdings spreads across the nation.
Actually something like this is probably more likely to keep denominations together. If these denominations realize that they could lose not only congregants but also the church property, they will be less likely to make any radical changes to their doctrines and bylaws. Up until now if a congregation left the fold, the denomination could simply sell the propery off and distribute the proceeds to those churches that stuck around.
I suspect that a lot of these homosexual minister issues and radical abortion rights issues will be dealt with behind closed doors and will never see the light of day.
No, these reprobates are dead serious. They will just get sneakier and more underhanded about what they are trying to do.
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