Anglican diocese retains ownership of four disputed church properties

From Vancouver- (Full text of the decision is at the link below)

The Anglican diocese of the Lower Mainland will be able to retain ownership of four disputed parish properties worth more than $20 million, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled today.

Justice Stephen Kelleher decided against conservative Anglican dissidents who went to court claiming they deserve to have legal control of St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church in Vancouver -- one of the largest Anglican congregations in Canada -- as well as three other Lower Mainland church properties.

The clergy and trustees at the four conservative parishes left the 600,00-member Anglican Church of Canada last year and joined a smaller conservative breakaway Anglican organization called the Anglican Network in Canada, with about 3,500 members.

The bitter Lower Mainland court case over church property is the latest in a series of harsh confrontations in Canada and around the globe between liberal and conservative Anglicans. The issue of same-sex blessings and how to interpret the Bible have been focal points of a decades-long division in the worldwide Anglican communion, in which liberal Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham has been a key player.

In addition to St. John's Shaughnessy Church, which is at the corner of Granville Street and Nanton Avenue in Vancouver's most expensive neighbourhood, the congregations affected by Wednesday's ruling are St. Matthew's Church in Abbotsford, St. Matthias and St. Luke Church on West 49th in Vancouver and Good Shepherd Church on East 19th in Vancouver.

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Anglican+diocese+retains+ownership+four+disputed+church+properties/2266487/story.html