Six congregations leaving ECUSA … with property?
The Layman Online, October 28, 2005
Six Episcopal congregations have decided to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Florida, which is based in Jacksonville, and align with the newly formed Anglican Alliance of North Florida. They say they hoped to keep their property.
The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville said in its Oct. 26 edition that the congregations have long been “at odds with their denomination over homosexual ordination and same-sex blessings.”
The decision to leave the denomination was announced during worship services at each of the six congregations Sunday.
The Rev. Neil Lebhar, rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Jacksonville, told The Times-Union that the six churches will negotiate with Bishop John Howard over property rights, benefits and other issues to try to avoid litigation. They say they want to be out of the Episcopal Church (USA) by the end of the year.
Since its consecration of a Bishop V. Eugene Robinson, who had left his wife and children to live with his homosexual partner, the ECUSA has been fracturing rapidly. Several departing congregations have gone to civil court to claim their property while the national church and is regional dioceses try to defend the ECUSA’s property trust clause.
Similar challenges are being made by a number of congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA), which has a clause in its constitution saying that all PCUSA congregations hold their property in trust for the denomination.
The U.S. Supreme Court long upheld the “hierarchal” right of denominational governing bodies to require local congregations to forfeit their property. Increasingly, however, civil courts are following the high court’s rule that “neutral principles of law” should be applied in church property disputes. In a number of California cases, the courts have concluded that local congregations have the right to revoke their denominations’ trust clauses.
The Rev. Sam Pascoe, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Orange Park, told The Times-Union, “It’s our expectation that we will leave with our property. Our first choice is to negotiate, but we are willing to litigate.”
The newspaper also quoted the bishop’s chief of staff, the Rev. Canon Kurt Dunkle, as saying that the “Holy Spirit-filled” negotiations so far have been limited to “how it is we will discuss whether you want to remain Episcopal or not … Florida law and canon law are clear that the diocese owns the property, period.”
Lebhar expressed “no hope” that the ECUSA would “repent of its decisions” to select a homosexual bishop and allow ministers to bless same-gender couples.
The PCUSA has ministers who have openly stated that they are practicing homosexuals, a violation the denomination’s constitution. Numerous efforts have been made to remove them from the ministry, but most have failed. The PCUSA also allows sessions of local congregations to authorize their ministers to conduct services blessing same-gender couples.
Many ministers have described those services as “marriages,” which are in violation of church law. Two Presbyterian ministers, the Rev. Jim Rigby of Austin, Texas, and the Rev. Janie Spahr of That All May Freely Serve, have been accused of violating the constitutional prohibition against marrying same-gender couples.
The six Florida congregations represent about 4,000 Episcopalians. Shortly after Robinson’s election in 2003, the congregations began withholding money from the denomination, removed the name “Episcopal” from church signs and joined organizations of like-minded conservative churches.
On Oct. 2, the Rev. Eric Dudley resigned as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tallahassee – the diocese’s oldest and second largest congregation – to form a new Anglican church. Shortly after Dudley and his new St. Peter’s congregation joined the group of six other Jacksonville-area churches to form the Anglican Alliance of North Florida.
Lebhar told The Times-Union that the group’s goal is to remain loyal to the more historically and Scripturally orthodox worldwide Anglican Communion.