Episcopal Church Lawsuit: Departed Local Parishes Can't Take Valuable Property

COLUMBIA, SC — Dozens of parishes that split with The Episcopal Church over theological issues — like the ordination of gay priests — are not allowed take valuable real estate with them, according to a split ruling by South Carolina's highest court.

Several dozen dioceses departed from The Episcopal Church in 2012. The South Carolina Supreme Court decision Wednesday settled some of the issues swirling in the wake of the split. Attorneys on both sides were still reviewing it Wednesday afternoon and didn't immediately comment.

The conservative Diocese of South Carolina, dating to 1785 and one of the original dioceses that joined to form the Episcopal Church, left the national church amid differences over theological issues, including the authority of Scripture and the ordination of gays. The group is now affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America, which formed in 2009. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Regional parishes that didn't leave the national church formed a diocese now known as The Episcopal Church in South Carolina.

The conservative diocese sued to protect its identity, the diocesan seal and other symbols it uses, along with $500 million in church property. The real estate includes the individual parishes' holdings and large properties including an Episcopal church camp near Charleston.

A circuit judge sided with the diocese in 2014, ruling it owned its name, symbols and property.

But on Wednesday, acting Justice Costa Pleicones wrote in the lead opinion that the judge improperly ruled she was required "to ignore the ecclesiastical setting in which these disputes arose." The trial court judge had viewed The Episcopal Church incorrectly as a congregational entity, with no structure to prevent individual parishes from leaving, Pleicones noted. The justice said the church is a hierarchical organization, with a structure.

Under that construct, only a handful of departed parishes — those that didn't sign onto an agreement allowing the national church to hold their properties in trust — should be allowed to keep their land and properties, he wrote.

Each of the court's five justices wrote individual opinions, a rare move that shows the different viewpoints in the complex case. Justices split 2-2 on intellectual property issues, leaving in place the trial judge's ruling that the breakaway diocese could keep the Diocese of South Carolina name, marks and seals.

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina had offered a settlement to resolve the dispute, saying it would allow parishes that left to keep their individual church property, regardless of whether they remained part of The Episcopal Church.

Both sides have 15 days to ask the Supreme Court to rehear the case if they choose. A federal lawsuit is still pending over allegations that the bishop of the breakaway parishes is committing false advertising by continuing to represent himself as bishop of the diocese.

By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press

Photo credit: Bruce Smith/Associated Press