Religion News Service
CALIFORNIA, USA, January 5, 2009: [HPI note: This is important news for any religious institution in the U.S. about property rights. Under U.S. law, the term “church” can be given to any properly established religious group, so Hindu institutions can qualify as churches, receiving special legal protection and benefits.]
The Episcopal Church claimed a major legal victory Monday when California’s Supreme Court ruled that breakaway parishes do not have the right to keep church property if they secede from the national denomination.
Episcopal leaders also hope that Monday’s ruling will chill enthusiasm for dissident conservatives. Dozens of conservative parishes have left the Episcopal Church since the ordination of an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
The Episcopal Church holds that local parish property is held in trust for regional dioceses and the national church. On Monday, California’s Supreme Court agreed. “When it disaffiliated from the general church,” the breakaway group, St. James Church, “did not have the right to take the church property with it,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin for the seven-member court.
The ruling may ripple across church and state lines as well, according to legal scholars, bolstering denominations locked in similar battles. A statement from St. James signaled that “the battle is far from over” and lawyers are considering a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.