Civil War law is blow to Episcopal Church

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2295

[Religious Intelligence] 13 Jul 2008--First some good news.

A US state court has rejected attempts to overturn a state law permitting congregations to withdraw from the church with their properties following a schism, delivering the Episcopal Church its second legal loss in its battle with 11 Nigerian-affiliated parishes in Northern Virginia.

On June 27, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows held that Virginia Statute 57-9A did not violate the US Constitution. The decision came in response to a lawsuit brought by the Episcopal Church and Diocese of Virginia against 11 Northern Virginia parishes that had quit the Episcopal Church for the Churches of Nigeria and Uganda .

Enacted shortly after the American Civil War, Statute 57-9A permits a local congregation to decide the fate of its property by majority vote in the event of a denominational split. The law was enacted to allow the orderly transfer of property in the wake of the denominational schisms suffered by the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other churches divided by the Civil War.

And now some bad news.