http://www.gazettes.com/allsaints12152005.html
By Steve Irsay
Staff Writer
More than a year after its highly publicized split from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national church in favor of Ugandan leadership, a judge ruled this week that All Saints’ Church is entitled to keep its Belmont Heights property.
In dismissing a lawsuit by the diocese against All Saints’ and another breakaway church, St. David’s in North Hollywood, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez found that the diocese had no right to the parish’s buildings and other properties in Long Beach.
The judge made a similar ruling in August concerning a third breakaway parish, St. James Church in Newport Beach.
All three announced the split in August 2004, citing differences over scriptural interpretation and the place of homosexuality in the church. The parishes aligned themselves with the conservative Ugandan Diocese of Luwero, a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church.
The Rev. William Thompson, rector of All Saints’ Church, said the congregation was pleased with the decision, thought not entirely surprised given earlier tentative rulings that favored the parishes.
“The congregation is encouraged,” he said. “Although the pending lawsuit did not take up a whole lot of our time on a day-to-day basis, it’s nice to have this round completed.”
The Diocese of Los Angeles has already appealed the St. James ruling to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, and expects to do the same in the All Saints’ and St. David’s cases, said John Shiner, attorney for the diocese.
“We have always felt that the resolution will be at the court of appeals level,” he said.
The legal wrangling began in September 2004, when the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles sued the three breakaway parishes seeking the return of church buildings and other property, including prayer books.
The diocese has maintained that church canons state that all parish property is held “in trust” by the diocese and national church.
The congregations have argued that they hold the individual deeds to the properties.
“The deeds to the local church properties are in the name of the local church corporations,” Velasquez wrote in his ruling issued Monday. “No trust is expressly stated on either of the deeds.”
The breakaway churches also made the case a matter of First Amendment rights. By filing anti-SLAPP (“strategic lawsuits against public participation”) motions — typically seen in cases involving freedom of speech — the churches claimed that the property dispute was an end run around religious freedom.
“Their purpose for filing the lawsuit was the split by All Saints’ and St. David’s from the diocese over differences in doctrinal issues,” said Lynn Moyer, attorney for All Saints’ and St. David’s. “The diocese had no basis in law for grabbing for the property, so to speak.”
The judge agreed that there was sufficient evidence that the lawsuit arose from the breakaway parish’s rejection of Episcopal Church views and public split from the church.
Shiner argued that the court misapplied the anti-SLAPP statute “in every conceivable way.”
“This is a real property issue,” he said. “It’s an issue over who owns parish property. That is the reason for the lawsuit.”
He added that there is no evidence that the diocese filed the lawsuit to interfere with religious freedom.
In addition to possible appellate action, a superior court ruling is expected Jan. 12 on an amended complaint by the national Episcopal Church against the three area breakaway parishes.
The split by the three area congregations mirrored a national fracturing of the 2.3-million member national Episcopal Church.
Some worshippers’ dissatisfaction with the national church culminated in the controversial August 2003 confirmation of openly gay Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.
Thompson said the ranks of All Saints’ Church — now known as All Saints’ Anglican Church — have grown since the break, with disenfranchised Episcopalians returning to the Anglican congregation.
Moyer, who is also a 27-year congregant of All Saints’, said the ruling returned the church’s focus to its evangelical mission.
“I think a real heavy burden has been freed from us,” she said. “We are done having to struggle within the church with these issues and can continue our ministry without this distraction.”
