Virginia Lawyers Weekly

The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia is beefing up its legal team in preparation for appeal of a series of court decisions that left the diocese without title to millions of dollars worth of church property.

Fairfax Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows issued final rulings this month that allow conservative breakaway congregations to keep their church buildings and other property as they leave the Episcopal Church to realign under the authority of conservative Anglican bishops from Africa.

The same day, the mainstream church announced it had hired University of Virginia law professor A.E. Dick Howard, a constitutional law expert, to help with the diocese’s appeal. “There may be no other legal expert in Virginia who is as knowledgeable of the state constitution,” said the Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, bishop coadjutor of Virginia, in a news release. “We are preparing our appeal now and are confident in our position that this law cannot stand constitutional scrutiny.”

The law in question is a Civil-War-era statute (Virginia Code § 57-9) that allows church congregations to vote to keep their church property when there is a “division” in the church denomination.

Bellows ruled in April that there was such a division in the Episcopal Church. He ruled in June that the statute was constitutional.

“We continue to believe the Division Statute is a violation of the United States and Virginia constitutions because it intrudes into the freedom of the Episcopal Church and other hierarchical churches to organize and govern themselves,” commented the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, bishop of Virginia.

The breakaway congregations claim that the battle is about church doctrine, not property. “The court’s decision is a great victory for religious freedom,” wrote Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. “It makes clear that we cannot be forced to leave our churches and our foundational Christian beliefs because of the decision by the leadership of The Episcopal Church to change the core components of our faith.”

The breakaway churches split from the American church in a dispute over interpretations of Scripture and the national church’s acceptance of homosexuality, including the ordination of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

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