From the Washington Post-
A years-long, multimillion-dollar land battle between the Episcopal Church in Virginia and conservatives who broke away from the denomination is headed back into court.
The Virginia Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would hear an appeal by the Episcopal diocese of Virginia and the national church, which lost in Fairfax Circuit Court last year.
A circuit court judge had sided with nine conservative Virginia congregations whose members were angry about the liberal approach the church takes toward several issues including whether the Bible can be read literally and whether gays and lesbians should be accorded the same rights as heterosexuals (in marriage and access to clerical positions, among other things). Conservative congregants voted to leave the Episcopal Church, take millions of dollars in real estate assets and join another, more like-minded branch of the Anglican Communion.
Religious denominations from Presbyterians to Conservative Jews are having similar disputes over human sexuality, and some have ended up in court pondering the question: Who gets to keep the property? The legal issues are not exactly the same as in the Virginia case, but a few rulings this summer have mostly gone in favor of the denomination. Last month in South Carolina, a court ruled that a 1745 deed gave property control to the congregation (as opposed to church officials).
More here-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101402727.html
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