Virginia attorney general intervenes in church dispute

Jan 12, 2008 3:00 AM

Washington, D.C. (Map, News) - Virginia's attorney general intervened this week in a roiling property dispute between the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and a group of splinter churches ... The congregations in question, about a dozen of them, hold property estimated between $30 million and $40 million in combined value ... McDonnell, a Republican, injected himself in the legal tangle Thursday ... Patrick Getlein, secretary of the Virginia diocese, said the Fairfax County judge has asked the diocese to deliver its position on McDonnell's motion by Jan. 24 but declined to comment further.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1153473~Virginia_attorney_general_intervenes_in_church_dispute.html


State Files to Join Episcopal Case
Attorney General Says Constitutional Issues Are at Stake
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 12, 2008; Page B03

... The case in Fairfax County Circuit Court is over whether the conservative congregations, which left the national church ..., can keep the land and buildings. After voting to leave in 2006 and 2007, the congregations filed court papers saying they had -- under a Civil War-era Virginia law -- legally "divided" from the national church and thus were keeping the property.

But the Episcopal Church and the Virginia Diocese, its local branch, argue that there has been no legal "division" -- rather that a minority of dissidents opted to leave, and therefore have no rights to the land or buildings. Church lawyers also say it would be unconstitutional for the state to determine when a hierarchical church -- such as the Episcopal Church -- has had a fundamental division, that such a judgment is a religious matter. Meddling would be a violation of church-state separation, diocesan lawyers say ...

Civil lawyers had mixed reaction to that, with some saying it was highly unusual for the state to get involved in a civil case when it was still at the circuit court level rather than waiting for a judge to rule ...

McDonnell's office has another connection to this issue -- his deputy, former state senator William C. Mims (R), who has been a member of another Episcopal church that broke away from the national church over the same issues of how to understand Scripture as it pertains to homosexuality. Mims prompted controversy and much debate in 2005 when he -- as a senator -- proposed a bill that would have explicitly allowed congregants who leave their denominations to keep their land. The measure failed, and opponents said it was an inappropriate insertion of government into church affairs ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103425.html


In Property Dispute, Litigation Drags On, And the Costs Grow
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 10, 2008; Page B02

A nasty property dispute between the Virginia Episcopal Diocese and 11 breakaway congregations is likely to stretch into 2009 as a result of a judge's decision, and the two sides say they have spent more than $1 million apiece on legal fees and expect to spend at least that much again before the case ends ...

It is being closely watched, because one of the main breakaway organizations-- the Convocation of Anglicans in North America -- is based in Fairfax City, and because it could set a precedent for conservatives across the country who want to leave the Episcopal Church and hold on to church buildings and land ...

On Friday, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows told the two sides that the earliest he could hear the second part of the case would be in the fall. A first trial was held in November, but Bellows has not issued a ruling. The two trials are supposed to resolve whether a "division" has occurred in the diocese under Virginia law -- a position the Episcopal Church rejects -- and whether the breakaway groups must vacate ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010903595.html

That is, if the churches had decided to leave the Episcopal church because of a dispute over a differing matter of theology, like the Eucharist, role of Deacons, or hymnody, that jackass AG wouldn't get involved at all (which he shouldn't).

BUT - since it's *****HOMOSEXUALITY*****, he's sticking his little pignose into affairs on the side of the anti-gay crowd.

Piece of shit.

the state should be involved in the distribution of the property. If any there were any members that did not leave the national church there contributions should be considered in how much the dissident church keeps and how much they must return to the national church or goes to the any of the churches that the non-dissent members transfered their membership.