Anglican Conference Property issues hover in the background during 'Hope and a Future' conference By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Monday, November 14, 2005 PITTSBURGH, Pa. – As in the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church and other denominations in the Protestant mainline, property issues - though only alluded to by speakers - hovered in the background of the first-ever international conference "Hope and a Future" attended by more than 2,000 theologically conservative Episcopalians this weekend. The conference was sponsored by the Anglican Communion Network, which was created by conservative bishops after the Episcopal Church USA's decision in 2003 to accept an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, and give tacit approval to same-sex blessings. As court cases pop up all over the country over who owns a congregation's property, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has begun sending teams to meet with synod and presbytery representatives to ensure that "church corporation articles … state clearly that the church property is held in trust" for the denomination. At least two property-dispute cases are under way in civil courts involving PCUSA congregations. Both congregations, which are evangelical and orthodox, voted to leave the PCUSA because of their disagreement with the actions and decisions of Presbyterian leaders. In California, Serone Church, an independent Korean congregation in Artesia, is trying to stop the Presbytery of Hamni's attempt to seize its property and assets. In North Carolina, Hephzibah Evangelical Church near Bessemer City has asked the North Carolina Court of Appeals to reverse a ruling by a state judge, who awarded the property to the presbytery. Both congregations are challenging the PCUSA's property trust clause, G-8.0201, in the Book of Order, which states: "All property held by or for a particular church, a presbytery, a synod, the General Assembly, or the Presbyterian Church (USA), whether legal title is lodged in a corporation, a trustee or trustees, or an unincorporated association, and whether the property is used in programs of a particular church or of a more inclusive governing body or retained for the production of income, is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church (USA)." Another case involved St. Luke's United Methodist Church, a Fresno, Calif., congregation that left that 8.5-million denomination in 2000 to become an independent Methodist church. Last December, the California Supreme Court let stand a lower court's ruling that the congregation had the right to revoke the United Methodist property trust agreement and keep its property. Last year, a Maryland state court ruled in favor of a dissident congregation that left the AME Zion Church. Similar challenges of church property laws are being pursued by congregations in the Episcopal Church (USA) and, in response, the Anglican Communion Network has a team of six lawyers on call. In October, the Episcopal Church USA's Property Disputes Steering Committee held a conference call among 32 participants, including 28 bishops and Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and his attorney, Virtue Online reported. The meeting, Virtue Online reported, is an outgrowth of a Property Task Force "with legal overtones" set up by the bishops at their recent meeting in Puerto Rico, which was described as "an ominous admission that the Episcopal Church might come apart at the seams with millions of dollars being spent on lawsuits over divided and fleeing parishes who believe that the Episcopal Church has abandoned the historic Christian faith." The 10-member task force of attorneys and other experts was created, Virtue Online reported, "to help defend the Episcopal Church and its dioceses against attempts by congregations or other dioceses to secede from the Episcopal Church with their property." Nineteen bishops from both U.S. sides met in July in Los Angeles to discuss ways to divide assets, The Washington Times reported. Although Washington Bishop John B. Chane threatened a walkout if anyone divulged what was discussed, Bishop Robinson revealed details about the gathering in a Sept. 23 interview with the Associated Press. The Living Church reported that several bishops were "livid" about Robinson's disclosures. At stake in the Episcopalian dispute are millions, if not billions, of dollars in real estate, endowments, pension funds and investments involved in a denomination founded in 1789. Wicks Stephens, a litigation and trial attorney from Los Angeles, heads up the legal team for the Anglican Communion Network. Stephens told The Washington Times that he has been asked to advise on "dozens" of conflicts nationwide. "Our biggest challenge at the moment is that too many bishops are looking to the canons [ecclesiastical laws] rather than being pastors to people who don't agree with them," he said. "If there's a desire to amicably deal with issues of disagreement, we're not seeing very much from the opposition in that respect." The Rev. Rick Warren, during his speech to the plenary session, warned against spending time and energy fighting over property. He said his own church did not erect its own building until it was 15 years old and 10,000 people in weekly attendance. Warren also said that 500 churches in his multi-denominational Purpose-Driven Network lost their buildings in Hurricane Katrina, but continue in ministry. "God is not interested in your possessions and your property. He is interested in you ... Jesus did not die for buildings, he died for people," Warren said. "What is more important is your faith, not your facilities. The church is people, not the steeple. They might get the building, but you get the blessing. "This is a chance to rethink the direction of your congregation," he said. "You don't have to have a building to grow a church." Although some state courts have upheld denominational property trust clauses, the recent rulings by appellate courts in Maryland and California concluded otherwise. Those appellate court rulings held that local congregations that had voted to leave their denominations could retain their property because they either never agreed to place the property in trust, or if the property were subject to trust, the trust was revocable. They said congregations that decided by majority vote to leave their denominations could rescind their submission to a trust clause adopted by the denomination. Since 1979, rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court increasingly have emphasized that church property rules must be resolved by a "neutral principles of law" analysis. In Jones v. Wolf (1979), the court declared, "The primary advantages of the neutral-principles approach are that it is completely secular in operation, and yet flexible enough to accommodate all forms of religious organization and polity. The method relies exclusively on objective, well-established concepts of trust and property law familiar to lawyers and judges. It thereby promises to free civil courts completely from entanglement in questions of religious doctrine, polity, and practice." The court added, "As a means of adjudicating a church property dispute, a State is constitutionally entitled to adopt a 'neutral principles of law' analysis involving consideration of the deeds, state statutes governing the holding of church property, the local church's charter, and the general church's constitution."

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