No Right to Rest for Weary Anglicans

Such is the fatigue over the Anglican-Episcopal splintering that two weekends ago, when the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles consecrated the denomination's second partnered gay bishop, the event didn't make a blip on many evangelical news websites. Also largely unnoticed was the previous week's press release from St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach, California, stating that it would appeal the latest California Court of Appeal ruling in its property dispute with the Episcopal Church. Christianity Today reported on St. James's court case as recently as January, but for embattled congregations, months can feel like years.

St. James broke ties with the Episcopal Church and briefly joined the Anglican Diocese of Luwero, Uganda, in 2004 before becoming a member of the Anglican Church of North America last year. The court case is set to determine who gets its building and other assets.

Those of us with any investment in these matters cannot succumb to our weariness if we deign to call ourselves people of conscience and conviction. Until there is resolution, we owe faithful allegiance and support to the persons and congregations that are still wrestling with these difficult issues. Both prayer and words of encouragement cost little, while St. James has set up a webpage for donations to aid in its legal defense. Expressing public support, as I'm doing here, may not change anything, but it lets warring congregations know they are not forgotten and that others stand with them.

I was reminded of my own responsibility in early May, when I visited St. James and spoke to the church's attorney, Eric Sohlgren. "Is eviction imminent?" I asked, having read of the California Supreme Court's ruling in March. "No, I don't think it would be imminent," he replied, as he explained the church's decision to file another appeal. "It depends on how things unfold obviously, and what path the court decides to take. If they turn us down, then St. James still has an option to go back to the U.S. Supreme Court, because at that point the case would be final in California."

Sohlgren says that in five years of legal wrangling, St. James has never had a chance to actually argue its case in court, and he suspects that the highest court in the land declined to adjudicate the case the first time around because it was "still percolating in the courts of California."

Church property laws vary by state, according to Sohlgren. In North Carolina, for example, a church can change its denominational affiliation without threat of losing its property, while in Texas, even if a church has bought and paid for its property, the denomination gets it in a dispute. In California, he says, "the courts are saying it's more muddied."

As former members of St. James, my husband and I joined an Episcopal church with deep reluctance when we moved back East in the fall of 2008. Our new congregation describes itself as "traditional," but is nonetheless part of the branch of American Anglicanism that is suing our former church. If asked where my allegiance lies in terms of the legal conflict, I would say without hesitation that it lies with St. James. In fact, my vestryman husband and I make sure we do not directly or indirectly contribute funds to the Episcopal Church's actions against St. James.

At St. James I found refreshment and renewal when I was burnt out on a thin liturgy of praise music and preaching. At St. James, my husband and I were confirmed as Anglicans by Evans Kisekka, bishop of the Diocese of Luwero. And Terry Kelshaw, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande, conducted the funeral service for our son. It was there, too, that a loving community of saints buoyed us up in the aftermath of that tragic event. And, equally significant, our Episcopal home is where we are now spiritually nourished and are nourishing others.

My husband and I have made an uncomfortable compromise so that we can worship according to our convictions amid limited options, but we do so understanding that if the issues that have divided the wider communion boil over in our congregation, we will leave before investing our energy and resources in a fight that's already been decided by the Episcopal Church.

We've been told that if a dispute with the denomination erupts in our state, the law dictates that church property goes to the denomination. Legal precedent here dates at least as far back as the 1930s, and I am doubtful that my fellow congregants are any more willing than I am to pay the price St. James and others are paying.

For example, Sohlgren says the Episcopal Church sued St. Luke's of the Mountains in La Crescenta, California, along with its clergy and volunteer vestry members, to confiscate the church's property based on two theories: "(1) the Episcopal Church had a trust interest in the St. Luke's property owned by the corporation, and (2) the vestry's vote to change the corporation's religious affiliation from Episcopal to Anglican was invalid."

The courts ultimately sided with the denomination on both theories. Sohlgren charges, "Since the Episcopal Church won the only thing they were seeking to obtain—the property—they could have released the volunteers from the suit and obtained a court judgment only against the corporation …. But, not exercising any restraint, the Episcopal Church also obtained judgments against each of the individual volunteers …. As a result, these individuals will have to live with the public record of a court judgment against them for the rest of their lives for having served as volunteers on a church board."

Would you risk your church home and/or your public record over a theological dispute? What are you doing, or what would you do under similar circumstances? How are denominational divisions over theology and sexuality impacting you and your church? And what, if anything, is the battle doing to your faith?