Colorado Springs congregation calls on ‘secessionists' to return parish property

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_87128_ENG_HTM.htm

[Episcopal Life Online] 22 June 2007--The members of Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs said June 20 that their former fellow parishioners have admitted that they have "no legal basis for seizing and occupying Episcopal Church property" unless the Colorado Supreme Court reverses its 1986 Mote decision concerning church property.

The congregation calling itself Grace Church and St. Stephen's in Colorado Springs announced May 26 that a majority of people voting in a week-long election agreed to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which calls itself a "missionary effort" of the Anglican Church in Nigeria.

The members of Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church are reportedly 200-400 people who wanted to remain affiliated with the Episcopal Church following the vote.

The election formalized a decision made in March by what was then the vestry of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. The group's announcement said that of the 370 votes cast (from a possible 822 voters), 342, or 93%, agreed with the decision.