Wednesday, June 20, 2012

U.S. Supreme Court won't take up Bishop Seabury case

From Connecticut-

The members of the Bishop Seabury Anglican Church might have to choose between their church building and their pastor, the Rev. Ronald S. Gauss said Tuesday, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Monday to review their case.

The high court declined to review the 2010 Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that the pastor and parishioners of the Bishop Seabury Church on North Road could not assume ownership of the building and land after they split from the Episcopal Church and its Connecticut diocese.


Gauss, the pastor, and his supporters have exhausted their appeals. They are bound by earlier court orders to relinquish the premises, although they were allowed to stay during the appeal process.
"This ruling brings the litigation over the property to its final conclusion," Karin Hamilton, a spokesperson for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut said Tuesday in a press release. "The judgment entered in favor of the Diocese and the Episcopal Church is now fully enforceable."


The legal battle started in 2007 when Gauss led his parish away from diocesan supervision over several disagreements, including the Episcopal Church's ordination in 2003 of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, and the election of a woman as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. in 2006.


More here-

http://www.theday.com/article/20120619/NWS01/120619644/1018

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