Denominations Back Va. Diocese

Episcopal Church Challenges State Law in Property Dispute

A half-dozen national Protestant denominations are supporting the Episcopal Church in a multimillion-dollar Virginia property dispute, saying a state law at the heart of the case could threaten them, too.

The United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA), among others, have filed court briefs in the past few weeks supporting the Episcopal Church, which is fighting 11 breakaway Virginia congregations that say the national church has become too liberal on issues from salvation to sexuality. Majorities of those congregations voted to leave and are now in Fairfax County Circuit Court over who gets to keep the property.

Experts say there are 50 to 100 similar property cases across the country, mostly involving Presbyterians, Methodists and Episcopalians. Most involve disputes over what scripture says about same-sex relationships. Cases have been decided in favor of both sides.

The filings loosely connect millions more U.S. Christians to the complex Virginia case, which blends U.S. church history with property law and questions about church-state relations. Among the groups signing on are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Seventh-day Adventists.

The filings also come at a critical point. At a hearing next Wednesday, the Episcopal Church and its Virginia diocese will challenge the constitutionality of a Civil War-era state statute at the center of the case. The statute says when denominations have "divided," congregations can vote with which branch they want to go. Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows agreed last month that there was a "division" in the Episcopal Church, but church attorneys say that the statute is unconstitutional -- that the government should not judge when discord in a religious body over things like doctrine has reached the level of "division."

Over the objection of the breakaway congregations, Bellows agreed that the six other denominations and 10 regional faith groups can participate in Wednesday's hearing. The state attorney general's office will be there to argue in support of the law; in 2005, however, the office said the law had potential constitutional problems that could "entangle government and religion."

Next week's hearing could be decisive in the Virginia fight. The basis of the breakaway churches' argument is that state law 57-9 governs their 2006-07 votes to leave the U.S. church, which is the American branch of the Anglican Communion, and join the Church of Nigeria, a more conservative branch.

Episcopal lawyers say the law is unconstitutional and note that church doctrine says property is "held in trust" by congregations for the denomination. attorneys for the breakaway churches note that the names of the congregations' trustees generally are on the property titles and deeds.

But attorneys siding with the Episcopal Church say this blend of control at the national and congregational levels is deliberate, an attempt to share responsibility and be intertwined -- like neither the Roman Catholic Church, where control rests at the highest level, nor Baptist churches, where control rests at the congregational level.

"We are all one church, we agree to be under this common authority. Congregations can do things like move from one location to another or improve their land, but we don't think people should just pick up and go when things aren't going their way," said Robert Tuttle, a George Washington University law professor who is serving as counsel for the Metropolitan Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which signed the brief.

Richard Rettberg, who represents the 8 million-member United Methodist Church, said having a judge analyze church doctrine, as has been done in this case, is considered controversial by many Methodists. "I'd go so far as to say it's anathema to church people. It's a violation of the separation of church and state."

But attorneys for the breakaway churches, which are part of a new, Virginia-based offshoot group called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, say there is no religious reason that the Episcopal Church can't write property documents that make explicit who controls ownership. They note in their filings that the Virginia Diocese owns property that is clearly in the name of its bishop.

In this case, they argue in filings for next week's hearing, the Episcopal Church seems to have simply "a desire to avoid the inconvenience . . . but the [Constitution's Free Exercise Clause] protects only the free exercise of religion."