Court setback for Episcopal Church

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2624

[Religious Intelligence] 2 Sep 2008--The Virginia courts have handed the Episcopal Church its third straight legal defeat in its battle with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), all but assuring a final legal victory for the Nigerian-overseen group led by Bishop Martyn Minns.

On Aug 19, Fairfax County Circuit Judge Randy Bellows rejected arguments put forward by lawyers for the Episcopal Church and Diocese of Virginia, which seeks to acquire control of property worth £20 million from the 11 CANA parishes. The national church had argued that contract law as codified in the US Constitution took precedence over state church property law. It also argued that an 1867 Virginia law that permitted congregations to quit their parent church with their property in the event of a schism was not applicable to the Episcopal Church.

Judge Bellows rejected the national church’s contentions, ruling that federal contract law would take precedence only for property acquired by the diocese or national church before 1867. He noted that in Virginia at that time the diocese could not own church property. Title to parish property was vested in the parish council.

The Episcopal Church also argued that it was unfair to apply democratic principles to church governance and that by being part of the diocese the 11 parishes had waived their right to invoke the 1867 law.

Judge Bellows ruled it was “too late” to assert this point, stating that the diocese and national church had waived this argument by not presenting it before it instituted the litigation.