Virginia judge affirms parish property rights

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/28/a-virginia-circuit-judge-has-handed-a-crucial-vict/

[The Washington Times] 28.06.08--A Virginia circuit judge has handed a crucial victory to a group of 11 former Episcopal churches that left the Diocese of Virginia 18 months ago over issues of theology and the 2003 consecration of the denomination's first openly gay bishop.

In a 49-page ruling issued Friday morning, Judge Randy I. Bellows said a Civil War-era statute allowing the churches to split and keep their property is constitutional.

"Simply put, [the division statute] was constitutional in 1867 when it became the law of the commonwealth of Virginia and it remains constitutional in 2008," the judge wrote.

There is no violation of the U.S. Constitution either, he added, including the First Amendment guarantees against the establishment of religion and against prohibiting the free exercise of religion.