California court supports
Episcopal property claim
The Layman, March 18, 2009
The California Supreme Court once again has ruled that an Anglican congregation that seceded from the Episcopal Church (USA) is not permitted to keep its property. On March 11, the justices dismissed the congregation’s appeal of a lower court decision that supported the denomination’s canon law asserting the ECUSA’s claim to property of breakaway churches.
St. John’s Anglican Church of Fallsbrook, Calif., formerly a member of the Diocese of San Diego, left the Episcopal Church in 2006. It has remained on the property while the case was under way.
The rector of St. John’s, the Rev. Donald Kroeger told ReligiousIntelligence.com that he was disappointed by the outcome, but that the congregation was “making plans to leave at any time” and would likely hold its last service on the property this month. St. John’s has been invited to meet without charge at an Assemblies of God church.
The Episcopal News Service quoted San Diego Bishop James Mathes as saying, “I am overjoyed with this result which will finally allow the Episcopalians of St. John’s to return to their church.” He claimed the dispute over the property “negatively impacted our evangelism.”
The outcome for St. John’s duplicated a California Supreme Court ruling in early January that denied St. James Anglican Church the right to keep its beachfront property in Newport Beach, Calif. St. James was spotlighted in the case, but three other congregations that broke relations with the Episcopal Church were also denied their property in that ruling.
In late January, St. James filed a “petition for rehearing or modification of decision” to challenge the California Supreme Court’s opinion that the national Episcopal Church (USA) is the owner of the local church property.
The petition says the ruling was preemptive because it did not allow St. James to present its case to the court: “ … [N]o affirmative defenses have been raised; no discovery has taken place; no full factual record has been developed; no cross-claims (if any) have been brought; and no trial has occurred.”
The petition also included new evidence supporting the congregation’s claim to the property. The evidence is a letter in 1991 from the Diocese of Los Angeles to St. James. The letter was signed by the Rev. Canon D. Bruce MacPherson, canon to the ordinary and attorney for the bishop of Los Angeles. That letter said: “The Rector, Wardens and Vestry of Saint James’ Parish, Inc., of Newport Beach, are given permission by the Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, to purchase and own the property on 32nd Street in Newport Beach, in the name of the Rector, Wardens and Vestry of St. James Parish, Inc. and not held in trust for the Diocese of Los Angeles or the Corporation Sole.”