Court to decide dispute over church property

From New York State the law suits go on even though the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Denomination previously.

State Supreme Court Judge Ferris D. Lebous will be asked Friday to decide whether a local church or a regional diocese owns property on Conklin Avenue, which is occupied by Church of the Good Shepherd.

The decision, whether rendered Friday or more likely reserved by Lebous for a future date, could be a precedent in ongoing legal disputes in New York state and elsewhere between the Episcopal Church and individual congregations that have withdrawn from the national denomination.

That split came when V. Gene Robinson, a self-avowed homosexual, was ordained a bishop in 2003.

Already, a state appeals court sided with the denomination in a similar case involving the Rochester diocese and a congregation in Irondequoit, which withdrew in January 2006. All Saints Church claimed it was entitled to church property, but the court ruled in October in favor of the diocese.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20081211/NEWS01/812110353/1001