Quoting Susan Russell+:At 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, the California Supreme Court released its long awaited decision on the property disputes between the Diocese of Los Angeles and former Episcopalians attempting to take diocesan property with them when they left the Episcopal Church. You can read the whole decision here... but if you want to "cut to the chase," here's the bottom line:
"Applying the neutral principles of law approach, we conclude that the general church, not the local church, owns the property in question."
and from another source:
"As stated in one of the out-of-state cases involving the same Episcopal Church, "[t]he individual defendants are free to disassociate themselves from [the parish and the Episcopal Church] and to affiliate themselves with another religious denomination. No court can interfere with or control such an exercise of conscience. The problem lies in defendants' efforts to take the church property with them. This they may not do."
More at Episcopal Cafe.
Forgive me, God, for I am grinning at someone's loss which is not good behavior for a follower of Jesus. I wonder what this will do to the folks like Duncan and Iker and all the others who think they have the only true knowledge of God and can violate the canons they vowed to respect and obey.
Perhaps this is the decision which will allow TEC to avoid further costly lawsuits and get on with doing God's work as described in the Gospels.
Posts
3 comments:
It is such an important decision and I am so happy this is the outcome.
And as you say (your lips to God's ear!):
Perhaps this is the decision which will allow TEC to avoid further costly lawsuits and get on with doing God's work as described in the Gospels.
Good news indeed.
I know it's terrible of me, but just about all I can do is chuckle uncontrollably.
Post a Comment