ECUSA’s saint oversees $3 million
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, September 29, 2009
Episcopal Church (USA) lawyers who sue congregations for their property can call on a special counsel. He is Saint Ives, named by the denomination as the patron saint of lawyers. In his honor, ECUSA has allocated a $3 million line item in its budget to pay legal fees.
ECUSA hasn’t done particularly well in its property claims against congregations that are leaving the denomination. The California Supreme Court gave it a mixed verdict. It declared that church property cases should be decided according to “neutral principles of law.”
In principle, that’s a loss to ECUSA and a win for local church corporations holding unencumbered deeds. But, in a surprising twist, the court ignored the very neutral principles criterion that it had just affirmed by deciding the fate of three local churches based on a trust clause in ECUSA’s constitution. That’s called “hierarchical deference,” the very principle that the court said it rejected in favor of neutral principles.
Replete with self-contradiction, California’s verdict has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court , a venue in which ECUSA will make short work of what remains in Saint Ives’ coffers.
In Virginia, ECUSA suffered substantial losses in a multi-year battle with 13 Northern Virginia churches representing tens of millions of dollars in real estate and investment assets. The fact that some of these congregations held deeds pre-dating the denomination, and the inclusion of Virginia law’s congregation-friendly language doomed ECUSA’s claim to local church sanctuaries and bank accounts.
The South Carolina Supreme Court decided for a Pawley’s Island congregation and against ECUSA on the basis of neutral principles of law. Included in its ruling was strong language declaring the denomination’s trust clause null and void. Only the owner of a property can place that property in trust for another party, said the court. ECUSA’s imposition of a “trust” on property owned by its congregations where there is no evidence that the congregations gave their explicit consent does not meet the essential criterion for a valid trust, said the court.
So, despite its appeal to saintly beneficence, ECUSA faces major setbacks in its attempt to claim property that was bought and paid for by others and its litigation fund is being rapidly drained.
That’s bad news for a denomination whose recently adopted 2010-2012 budget had to be cut by $23 million. That budget, titled “I in You and You in Me,” anticipates the loss of 30 more ECUSA employees in light of severe revenue shortfalls from member congregations. “We hold them in our hearts,” prayed Brother Geoffrey Tristram, the bishops’ chaplain, following adoption of the budget in July.
If, as in some traditions, a pre-requisite for sainthood is poverty, then ECUSA’s attempt to engraft Saint Ives to its bank account may portend red ink for the balance.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly tried a different angle. In 2008, it created a $2 million special fund (no saint was named) from which to sue its churches. In order to preserve the denomination’s dwindling resources, the enabling motion stated that the fund would be fueled by voluntary gifts. More than a year since the fund was established, no contributions have been reported, forcing the Office of the General Assembly to find more indirect ways to support litigation.