It just goes on and on and on and on....The petitions were filed under a Virginia law that lets a state court determine whether a division exists within a denomination and gives a congregation the right to disaffiliate itself and retain its property.
The 1867 law was intended to enable congregations after the Civil War become independent from parent denominations in the North, said William Hurd, a lawyer for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Fairfax Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows ruled previously that the congregations properly invoked the statute, and he has ruled that the statute is constitutional.
But whatever Bellows decides likely won't end the dispute. Officials with the Diocese of Virginia have said that once the judge enters his final order, they plan to appeal the case on all available grounds.
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/living.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-10-14-0053.html
2 comments:
Jim, you forgot to post the rest of the article and not just the bit that favors TEC:
Fairfax Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows ruled previously that the congregations properly invoked the statute, and he has ruled that the statute is constitutional.
Eleven congregations had been part of the case, but two reached a settlement last month with the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church. Those congregations, Potomac Falls Church in Sterling and Christ the Redeemer Church in Centreville, meet in elementary schools and do not have property.
"We had hoped that the diocese and [the Episcopal Church] would have used this model as a way to work with us to drop the remaining lawsuits which we never wanted, did not initiate and consistently said that we would like to resolve amicably," Jim Oakes, vice chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, said in a statement. "Despite the promise of appeal from the diocese, we are ready to put this litigation behind us for all of the parishes so that we can focus our time, money and effort solely on the work of the Gospel."
The Anglican District of Virginia is affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a missionary branch of the Church of Nigeria, and other Anglican archbishops.
Four properties are at issue in the trial starting this week; the diocese is not contesting that the others are covered by the congregations' petitions.
-Mary
bb. I seldom post the whole article. That's why I provide the link.
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