Trust busting

Religion | "Momentous" ruling may give local churches a trump card with liberal hierarchies: their property | Edward E. Plowman

Those people nervously pacing the floor may be denominational church officials. The latest court decision over ownership of church property in California has many of them on edge.

After St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, Calif., severed ties last year with the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church (ECUSA) over biblical issues, including homosexuality, the denomination's six-county Diocese of Los Angeles sued. It sought to confiscate the parish's multi-million-dollar property and financial assets. The diocese cited ECUSA's 1979 "Dennis" canon, or church law, that says parish property is held in trust for the denomination.

But superior court judge David C. Velasquez in Orange County dismissed the lawsuit on Aug. 15 before it went to trial. The judge acknowledged that under church law, hierarchical denominations have the final say in church property disputes. "However," he added, "California courts are not bound by canon law."

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