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The
Washington
Post
Trial Begins in Clash
Over Va. Church Property
By Michelle Boorstein,
washingtonpost.com from the Web, November 14, 2007
Tens of millions of dollars of
Virginia real estate are at stake in a trial that began yesterday in Fairfax
County Circuit Court, where priests, members of bitterly divided churches and
lawyers filled the pews. It is one of the largest property disputes in
Episcopal Church history.
The trial comes almost a year after the majority of congregants in 15
traditional Episcopal churches voted to leave the national church because of
disagreements about the nature of God and salvation and about whether gay men
and lesbians should be fully accepted. Northern Virginia has since become
one of the most active areas in the country for the conservative, breakaway
movement, and clergy around the country are watching this trial to see what
happens to Episcopalians who want to leave -- and take church properties with
them.
The land issue is a manifestation of a larger debate within the Anglican
Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch. Traditional
Anglicans are frustrated with decades of what they see as watered-down
Christianity, and the dispute threatens to split the Communion.
Although traditionalists are a minority in the United States -- members of the
15 Virginia breakaway churches represent about 7 percent of the Episcopal
Diocese of Virginia -- they dominate in large swaths of the developing world,
including in Africa and Asia.
Only 11 of the original 15 congregations are involved in the litigation
currently in court, including the grand, historic Truro Church in Fairfax City
and The Falls Church in the city of Falls Church. Officials with the
Virginia diocese said the property in dispute is worth at least $30 million.
The trial, which is scheduled to go on until late next week, is actually the
first of two trials, and no resolution in the land dispute will come until early
next year at the earliest.
The first trial is meant to determine whether the congregations "divided" under
the legal meaning of the word. After the congregations voted, they filed
court documents citing a Civil War-era part of Virginia code that allows
congregations that have divided to vote on where they wish to affiliate.
If the court approves the documents, according to the historic code, then the
breakaway churches get the property.
After voting to leave, the 11 churches placed themselves within a Virginia-based
branch of the Church of Nigeria -- another wing in the Communion.
The Virginia diocese is arguing that there was no division, but rather that
individuals unhappy with the Episcopal Church chose to leave. The diocese
and the national church, which are both parties in the case, say that the
Episcopal Church is hierarchical and therefore a "division" can only happen if
there is a vote of its governing body.
But those on the breakaway side say it was the Episcopal Church that "left" by
letting stand the 2003 installation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. The
national church "has willfully torn the fabric of the communion at the deepest
level," attorney Steffen N. Johnson said yesterday in his opening argument.
They called as witnesses two U.S. church historians to discuss how church
disputes were settled at the time the law was passed.
Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows has said he will rule on this case
next month. Regardless of how he rules, a second trial will be held on
lawsuits brought by the diocese and national church against the breakaway
churches. That action asks the Circuit Court to declare the diocese the
rightful owner of all property. The suits also asked the court to force
the breakaway congregations off the 11 properties, which they have occupied
since the votes in December and January.
Bellows's ruling in the first trial will help whichever side he rules for in the
second, representatives on both sides said.
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