Fairfax, USA - Eleven conservative church congregations seeking to break away from the Episcopal Church in a dispute over sexuality and other theological issues have won a preliminary victory in a closely watched lawsuit that will decide who controls church property.
A Fairfax County judge ruled late Thursday that he will decide the case under a Virginia law governing religious divisions that dates to the Civil War era. The language in that law is favorable to the departing congregations because it allows each congregation to realign by a simple majority vote.
The judge is still a long way from deciding who ultimately controls church property. He still must rule on the constitutionality of that state law and must decide whether the departing congregations conducted their realignment votes properly.
The dispute began in 2003 when the Episcopal Church _ a denomination with more than 2 million members in the United States and a part of the 77-million member worldwide Anglican Communion _ consecrated an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The dispute grew to entail key theological questions over scriptural interpretation and theological orthodoxy.
The departing congregations voted in 2006 and 2007 to break away from the Episcopal Church and realign under conservative Anglican bishops from Africa as part of a newly created Anglican District of Virginia. The Episcopal Church has refused to recognize the split and sued to reclaim church property.
Similar disputes have occurred across the country, and the Virginia lawsuit has been seen by some as a bellwether, in part because of the prominence of two Virginia congregations seeking to realign. Truro Church in Fairfax in The Falls Church in Falls Church trace their history back to Colonial times and control property that is worth tens of millions of dollars.
In issuing his ruling, Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows rejected arguments by the Episcopal Church that the dispute between the congregations and the denomination was so minor that Virginia's "division statute" should not apply.
"It blinks at reality to characterize the ongoing division within the Diocese, (the Episcopal Church) and the Anglican Communion as anything but a division of the first magnitude, especially given the involvement of numerous churches in states across the country ... who have found themselves 'taking sides' against their brethren," Bellows wrote.
He noted that 7 percent of the congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and 11 percent of its baptized membership have left the diocese in the last two years.
Jim Oakes, vice chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, said he was pleased with the ruling, but is appalled at the millions of dollars in legal fees both sides have spent.
He said he hopes the two sides can reach a settlement, though he is confident in the strength of the congregations' case.
"We are just as confident about the constitutionality of the statute as we were about its applicability," Oakes said.
Henry D.W. Burt, secretary for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, said freedom of religion clauses in both the U.S. and Virginia constitutions require that the denomination be allowed to settle the dispute under its own rules.
"This disagreement is about sacred ground where past generations of faithful Episcopalians have married, baptized their children and buried their dead," Burt said.
The Episcopal Church has argued that individual members are free to leave the denomination, but that church property is held in trust and must remain in Episcopal hands.
Hearings on the constitutionality of the Virginia division statute are scheduled for May.