A judge has ruled that a Mississippi church – not the Presbyterian Church (USA) – owns its property. In First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Starkville Mississippi vs. Presbytery of St. Andrew, the Presbyterian Church (USA) Inc., the Honorable H.J. Davidson Jr., granted the church’s motion for summary judgment “affirming its right to hold title to its…
By Bruce Smith ST. GEORGE — The bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina testified Friday that he never originally intended to split with the national Episcopal Church as a three week-trial stemming from the acrimonious division came to a close. The bishop for the state’s parishes that are remaining with the national church, meanwhile,…
Just months after a vote to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) failed, the session of First Presbyterian Church (FPC) in Houston, Texas has filed a civil lawsuit seeking clear title of its property. The session initiated a court action on May 29, seeking to clear the title of the church property from claims by the…
By Virtue Online CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Supreme Court has intervened in a lawsuit and granted the Diocese of South Carolina Motion to transfer jurisdiction from the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court. This may effectively prevent The Episcopal Church (TEC) and its local subsidiary, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECSC),…
By. A.S. Haley In recent appellate decisions, the courts in both South Carolina and Texas have pointed to a decisive judicial rejection of the Dennis-Canon-based litigation strategy of the powers at 815 Second Avenue in New York, headquarters of what I (still) call ECUSA. If they ever choose to reassess that strategy (as the Rt….
By A.S. Haley Today the Texas Supreme Court denied the losing parties’ petitions for rehearing in the two ECUSA cases pending before it: No. 11-0265, Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al. v. The Episcopal Church, et al.; and No. 11-0332, Masterson v. Diocese of Northwest Texas. The Court had delivered its opinions in the two cases last August 30. In the…
It appears Highland Park Presbyterian Church (HPPC) and Grace Presbytery may be headed to court after all. The two sides were unable to reach a settlement in the lawsuit over the church’s property during a second round of mediation talks last week, paving the way for the parties to take the issue to court. Last…
By Steve Salyards As regular readers know I have not just been following the many twists and turns of the dismissals of churches from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as an outside observer but at the level of my own presbytery I have found myself deeply involved in the process. And so it is with a…
The session of Highland Park Presbyterian Church (HPPC) in Dallas, Texas, has come out in support of actions initiated by the church’s Board of Trustees in filing a civil lawsuit seeking not only to protect church property from the presbytery, but also asking the court to declare that the church itself owns and controls all…
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court released two rulings on Episcopal Church property cases declaring that Texas courts must follow neutral principles of law when deciding church property cases. Decisions were handed down in the cases of Robert Masterson, et al. v. Diocese of Northwest Texas, et al.and Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al….