{"id":10800,"date":"2007-06-28T10:10:04","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T17:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/06\/28\/parish-the-thought-2.html"},"modified":"2007-06-28T10:10:04","modified_gmt":"2007-06-28T17:10:04","slug":"parish_the_thought_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/28\/parish_the_thought_2.html","title":{"rendered":"Parish the thought"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Episcopal Church has won a legal victory in California<\/a>.  Though a lower court had originally ruled against the diocese of Los Angeles in a court case regarding some break-away parishes retaining ownership of their church property, a state appeals court has reversed that ruling, arguing that the church’s own internal rules and canon law make it clear that church property belongs to the diocese and the national church, not individual parishes.<\/p>\n

\n

In Monday’s ruling, however, presiding Justice David G. Sills, who wrote for the panel, made clear that it had confined its decision to the property dispute and not the broader controversy. “Readers will look in vain in this opinion for any indication of what religious controversy may have prompted the disaffiliation,” Sills wrote. ” \u2026 That controversy is irrelevant to this action.”<\/p>\n

Sills later concluded, “The right of the general church in this case to enforce a trust on the local parish property is clear.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The dissidents indicated that this was (a) not in keeping with California case law (possibly, though it is how most state laws work in such cases) and (b) very, very, very sad that the Nassssssty Episcopal Church would take other Christians to court over such unGodly things as property matters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s this latter defense that drives me up the freaking wall.  If property weren’t an issue here … then why are they <\/em>kicking up such a fuss?  Why are they considering where they<\/em> worship as so important?  If they want to break away, aren’t they better served by leaving it all behind and showing their missionary zeal by starting afresh?<\/p>\n

Oh, I forgot, it’s their <\/em>church. <\/p>\n

I don’t know the particulars for the parishes involved, but I can use my own as at least some guidance.  Yes, our parish was responsible for raising money and buying our church property and constructing it and expanding it and paying the mortgage.  On the face of it, it’s “ours.”<\/p>\n

Except, of course, for the canon law that says that we’re holding it in trust <\/em>for the church and for all Episcopalians who may come to our community to worship. <\/p>\n

And except, of course, even where there was no direct financial aid to the church from the diocese, the diocese was either explicitly or implicitly part of the deal.  If we go under, our debtors will go after the diocese, whether or not they counter-signed our mortgage.  That’s one reason we were able to negotiate a mortgage at the terms we did — it wasn’t just our x-hundred member congregation (“The Grace L. Fergusson Storm Door and Church Co.”) but the entire diocese of Colorado and the Episcopal Church there in the office with us.<\/p>\n

Add to that the other assistance the diocese has provided us over the years, whether or not we’ve matched it back, and for us to say that, no, it all belongs to us, not you, so get off our lawn, you darned heretics<\/em>, is not only itself unChristian, it’s just goofy.<\/p>\n

If I decided that I was leaving the Episcopal Church, I’d go.  I wouldn’t take a Prayer Book from the pews with me.  If I and the majority of my parishioners reached the same decision, we’d go, and leave our building behind.  And if that meant we had to build our own church, then that’s what we’d do.  Christ’s disciples didn’t argue with the Pharisees that they should get ownership of the Jewish temples; they went out and built their own communities.  It’s not sexy and it’s not easy and it’s gut-wrenching … but you’d sort of expect such a decision to be that way anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Episcopal Church has won a legal victory in California.  Though a lower court had originally ruled against the diocese of Los Angeles in a court case regarding some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7762,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/17\/church_property.html","url_meta":{"origin":10800,"position":0},"title":"Church property","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Aug-05 11:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday's ruling regarding the break-away Episcopal parish of St James in Newport Beach, Calif., is an interesting one -- and one, unfortunately, ill-served by the AP wire story that went...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12391,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/15\/colorado_springs_episcopa.html","url_meta":{"origin":10800,"position":1},"title":"Colorado Springs Episcopal Brouhaha Update","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-May-08 10:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some news, finally, from the big Grace & St Stephens \/ Rev Don Armstrong \/ Episcopal Church property\u00a0donnybrook. An El Paso County District Court judge ruled today that the...","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episcshield.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10892,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/27\/the_vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":10800,"position":2},"title":"The Vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-May-07 11:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The ballots are in and the brave Anglican\u00a0faithful of Grace & St Stephens in Colorado Springs have voted to sever ties with the nassssty Episcopal \"church\" and follow the...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episc-shield.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12022,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/08\/schism.html","url_meta":{"origin":10800,"position":3},"title":"Schism","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 8-Dec-07 10:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So the\u00a0Episcopal\u00a0Diocese of San Joaquin (in California) has seceded (due to all that nassssty gay stuff) \u00a0from the Episcopal Church, instead choosing to be aligned under the Anglican\u00a0Province of...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episcshield_15_188.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12198,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/23\/no_you_dont_say.html","url_meta":{"origin":10800,"position":4},"title":"No! 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