Breakaway Episcopal Churches Lose Court Case

In welcome news seven anti-gay Episcopal parishes that broke away from the national church after the installation of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire - yet tried to retain the national church property they had been utilizing - have lost their court battle to retain the basically stolen property. Part of their legal strategy had been to rely on a civil war era statute still on the books that had been enacted to allow break away pro-slavery southern baptist churches to break from the national church and keep the anti-slavery national church's property. One would think that reliance on such a morally flawed statute should have seen the gay haters a message. Here are highlights from the Washington Blade on the victory for the Episcopal Church USA:

A Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge issued a ruling on Jan. 10 against seven conservative Episcopal congregations in Northern Virginia that broke away from the church in 2006 in protest of the church’s earlier decision to accept same-sex relationships.

The ruling could force the breakaway congregations to turn over to the Episcopal Church buildings and property in Virginia worth more than $40 million that the conservative faction seized after congregations voted to separate from the church over the gay relationship dispute.

The dispute between the conservative and more progressive congregations within the U.S. Episcopal Church came to a head in 2003 when church leaders approved the ordination of a gay Episcopal priest, V. Gene Robinson, as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, making Robinson the denomination’s first out gay bishop.

Nicholas Benton, editor and publisher of the Falls Church, Va., News Press, said the court ruling would have an enormous positive impact on the LGBT-supportive Episcopal leaders and worshipers who lost possession of their church buildings, including an historic Episcopal Church building in the City of Falls Church.