Bishops on both coasts have taken steps in advance of the 75th General Convention to clarify their ownership claim to parish property in the event of a split. Last month Executive Council authorized an expenditure of $100,000 from short-term reserves for the House of Bishops’ ad hoc task force on property disputes.

“It is the belief of the ad hoc task force that in the event parishes are successful in taking without just compensation the Episcopal Church’s real and personal property, some dioceses and parishes will confront and experience severe financial situations which could result in jeopardizing of their financial existence, integrity and stability,” council said in resolution AF-112, which was adopted March 8 in Philadelphia. “The ad hoc task force is also of the belief that some dioceses and parishes may not have the financial resources to support litigation to undertake appropriate legal actions to prevent a taking of their property.”

Portions of two congregations in the Diocese of San Diego have left the Episcopal Church within the past few months. The rector and a number of congregants of Christ the King in Alpine chose to leave and start a new congregation, Blessed Trinity, in December. St. Anne’s, Oceanside, decided in a majority vote in January to affiliate with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone under the assumption that they would keep the property. Portions of both Episcopal congregations continue to worship regularly, Christ the King at their church in Alpine and St. Anne's at All Saint's Cemetary Chapel in Oceanside.

California courts generally do not defer to church canons relying instead on neutral principles of law to adjudicate church property disputes. As a result of lower court rulings last year, three parishes in the Diocese of Los Angeles were permitted to retain their property after voting to leave the Episcopal Church. The decision is being appealed.

The Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes, Bishop of San Diego, issued a pastoral directive April 19 that requires all rectors in his jurisdiction to submit by May 20 copies of parish articles of incorporation, parish by-laws, employment contracts, title to a real property, balance sheets for the past two years and evidence of appropriate surety bond as required by canons.

“If you and your congregation pursue an effort at secession, you will at that moment be in violation of your ordination vows,” Bishop Mathes wrote. “By this pastoral direction, you will be, by that very act or by your participation, an inhibited priest and deprived of standing or canonical or legal authority to do the very action you purport to effect. In issuing this pastoral direction, it is my hope that the issue of attempted congregational secession can be conclusively addressed and that we can concentrate on what is our common work together.”

Earlier in the month the Diocese of North Carolina informed its clergy that it would be preparing “for signature and subsequent filing in all of the counties of the diocese in which there are diocesan parishes and/or missions, a ‘Declaration of Interest’.” The intent, according to the letter, is to create a public statement of the ownership interest of the diocese and the General Convention in real and tangible property owned by or on behalf of diocesan parishes and missions.

“We believe that the interests of PECUSA and the Diocese of North Carolina in such real estate are not adequately reflected in all counties in which Episcopal property is located,” said the Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry in a letter dated April 4. “We believe that providing a public record notice of interest of PECUSA and the diocese in such real estate will be consistent with the applicable constitution and canons of PECUSA and our diocese and simplify future real estate transactions.”

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