Heated church battle going before Virginia Supreme Court

From Virginia-

Today the Virginia Supreme Court will hear arguments in what amounts to a civil war in the Episcopal Church, the oldest church in the nation. The property custody battle between the Episcopal Church Diocese and numerous churches that have split over moral issues isn't a battle between the north and the south, but between the left and the right. The split began several years ago, when the democratic church body voted to ordain on openly gay bishop.

"The trigger point was that, it's true," said Martyn Binns, Missionary Bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans North America, He was speaking for the group that essentially seceded from the Episcopal union. "But that's really a symptom. The underlying problem is you're walking away from the basic teachings of the Bible, which we think is true. We want to stand on that." Bishop Shannon Johnston with the Diocese of Virginia said, "People are free to leave the church as they wish, but the cannot take their property with them." The church's position is that the 9 churches that voted to withdraw from the body of the Episcopal Church must forfeit their property. Bishop Johnston said with most of the retreating churches, the property was paid for or renovated by the Episcopal Church. Bishop Binns agreed that was case with some of the churches, but others had their own deeds or had paid for much of the improvements to the buildings and properties. Negotiations over those custody questions failed, and the case wound up in Fairfax Circuit Court last year. The rebelling churches successfully argued that the Virginia Division Statute -

http://leg1.state.va.us/000/cod/57-9.HTM

- gave the state the right arbitrate this kind of church property dispute. That statute came about at the end of the Civil War. But the Episcopal Church Diocese argues that antiquated law has no current Constitutional basis. What's more, they believe, the Constitution says the state has no right to interfere in church business. Both sides will argue that the right to religious freedom means they should win. "This is a watershed moment," Bishop Johnston said.


http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-episcopal-diocese-court,0,6058307.story