Church is focus of court fight
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10542367
Published Tuesday January 20, 2009
When a parish breaks up with its church authority, who gets the house of worship?
That’s a fight taking place in courthouses coast to coast and now in Nebraska as part of the Episcopal Church’s schism over issues of scriptural interpretation and homosexuality.The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska is suing the rector and lay leaders of a breakaway parish, St. Barnabas. Diocesan officials want the Rev. Robert Scheiblhofer and company to leave the historic church at 129 N. 40th St. and the rectory next door, now that the parish has rejected the authority of the Episcopal Church. The diocese contends it is the rightful owner of the property under church rules and state law.
Scheiblhofer and other parish leaders say they aren’t going anywhere. They contend that the property has always belonged to the parish, that it still does and that the diocese has no claim to it.
The diocese has asked the Douglas County District Court to resolve the dispute. An attorney for Scheiblhofer and St. Barnabas’ vestry, or governing body, is seeking to have the suit thrown out. The first hearing in the case is set for Wednesday.
“Simply put, the diocese is asking the court for a declaratory judgment that it owns the property,” said D.C. “Woody” Bradford, chancellor of the diocese and its attorney on the case.
The diocese, drawing a distinction between the parish and its members, contends that parishes exist only as part of the diocese and the larger Episcopal Church,
“It (the lawsuit) has no effect on the individual members’ freedom to practice their faith in a way that they choose,” Bradford said. “They’re free to leave. But the parish doesn’t go with them.”
John Chatelain, attorney for Scheiblhofer and the lay leaders, interprets state law and church and parish rules differently: St. Barnabas Parish holds the deed to the property, that parishioners always have owned and maintained it and that Scheiblhofer and church members rightfully occupy the property now.
“I don’t know what they (the diocese) would do with an empty building at 40th and Davenport Streets,” Chatelain said. “It (the lawsuit) is more an intimidation procedure to make it very tough on parishes who leave.”
St. Barnabas, which Scheiblhofer said has 125 members, is among more than 80 out of 7,100 Episcopal parishes nationwide whose members have decided to leave the Episcopal Church. St. Barnabas is the only one of Nebraska’s 57 Episcopal parishes that has disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church.The parishes have left for a variety of reasons, most having to do with conservative parishioners’ and clergy’s beliefs that the U.S. church has drifted from the traditional Anglican faith.
Long known for tolerating a wide variety of theological views, the Episcopal Church has struggled in recent years over issues that confront other denominations as well — including the ordination of women and of openly homosexual clergy.
Many departures followed the Episcopal Church’s 2003 ordination of its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. In the ensuing years, dozens of parishes and even some entire dioceses — Pittsburgh and San Joaquin, Calif. — have left the Episcopal Church. Many put themselves under the authority of conservative Anglican bishops in Africa.
In Omaha, St. Barnabas members voted in 2007 to leave the Episcopal Church. They joined the Anglican Church in America, an affiliation of conservative Anglican churches.
Scheiblhofer said his parish’s split with the Episcopal Church “had been coming for a long time.”
“There had been a lot of disquietude for many years,” he said. “It wasn’t the Robinson thing or anything like that. It was just enough is enough.”
Scheiblhofer said St. Barnabas historically has had differences with Nebraska Diocese officials. The parish was founded in 1869 as part of the Oxford Movement, a strain of Anglicanism that identified more than most with the faith’s roots with the Roman Catholic Church.
To this day, St. Barnabas uses the Tridentine Mass, a dramatically scripted liturgy that dates to the Middle Ages. It’s the same liturgy used by an organization of Roman Catholic priests who have a seminary in Denton, Neb., who are trying to bring back the Latin Mass.
St. Barnabas conducts its services in English. It also has a weekly Spanish Mass.
Scheiblhofer said the ordination of women and Robinson’s ordination were products of what he considered errant theology going back decades.
Yet St. Barnabas stayed in the Episcopal Church because parishioners could practice according to their beliefs, the priest said. The parish “had no argument” with Nebraska Episcopal Bishop Joe Burnett, Scheiblhofer said.
“He’s a very nice man and didn’t interfere,” Scheiblhofer said. “But we thought he’s not going to be there forever, and what’s the next bishop going to do?”
He said parish leaders thought they would be safe leaving in 2007 because so many churches were splitting with the Episcopal Church at the time.
But the diocese sued for the property in November after negotiations between diocesan and parish leaders failed, according to the diocese’s lawsuit.
“The diocese exerted every effort to keep St. Barnabas in the fold but hasn’t been able to,” said Bradford, the diocese’s attorney. “This is not a result that the diocese wanted.”
The diocese takes the position that the parish exists only as a part of the diocese and the Episcopal Church, and as such, holds its property in trust for the larger church.
Such an argument has been successful in some church property lawsuits, including one recently decided by the California Supreme Court, said Frank Kirkpatrick, professor of religion at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and author of “The Episcopal Church in Crisis.”
An exception: the case of historic Falls Church and Truro Church in Virginia, which trace their history to congregations in which George Washington served as a vestryman in the 1700s. They’re among 11 Virginia churches that recently won a state court battle with an Episcopal diocese over church property. But that case appears headed for the Virginia Supreme Court on appeal.
The legal fight over St. Barnabas has just begun. The first hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before Douglas County District Court Judge Joseph Troia.
• Contact the writer: 444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
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Another property dispute
Another recent Omaha church split involved a lawsuit over property. Covenant Presbyterian Church in west Omaha filed suit in February 2007 to hold onto its buildings after the congregation voted to separate from its national church body, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Covenant members had voted to leave the national body over theological differences and ordination rules. Covenant joined a smaller, more conservative national church body, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
The property lawsuit was settled amicably in October 2007. The Presbytery of the Missouri River Valley, the regional branch of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to approve Covenant’s departure. Covenant members kept the church property, 15002 Blondo St.
The absolutely most influential person in my clergy life was (then) Father Hosea and (later) Bishop Hosea. Deeply Catholic, he was also a pragmatist. Two things, though, convince me that he would have been conflicted by the current positions and controversies within ECUSA. I have no reason to think he would not be joining the split-off Anglicans.
First: He told an apocryphal story about a bishop’s annual visit to “St. Andrew’s” where he told the people that they had to do something – it doesn’t matter what. A lady piped up and said “He isn’t a member of St. Andrew’s” to which he replied, “You’re right. I’m not a member of St. Andrew’s. St. Andrew’s is a member of me.”
Second: This was back in the very early (Philadelphia) days of women priests. When asked about them his response was, “Not in my diocese.”
Seventy-five years ago I was born into and baptized (privatively, of course, because that was the way it was done in those days) by PECUSA which then educated me (at St. Paul’s) and sent me on to college. Eleven years later (1966) I went to the seminary.
All of this is only to say that I am one of the deeply traditional people who have been deserted by the church. I have not left it but it absolutely has left me. I no longer attend because the church in which I grew up no longer exists. I’m glad that I’m retired!
The rules for this response say that my e-mail address will not be published but I’d happily get into correspondence on this subject. My name is Larry and my email address is
Damn! My email address was cut off from the response above. It’s elhazard@easystreet.net.
Dear Father, We share many of the same sorrows. The folks at the national church refer to these days as the “recent unpleasantness.” We both know it is much more serious than that. God has judged, is judging and will judge the decisions and actions that have been made. I am a clergy wife. The most influential bishop in my life was the Rt. Rev. John Burt because of his emphasis on spiritual formation, especially of the clergy and their families. My bishop now is the Rt. Rev. James Stanton and he is an inspiration of continuing to be the Church we were born into vs. the church of today. Please write to me when you have a chance. We will encourage each other. Yours in Christ, Cherie Wetzel