Breakaway Colorado Parish Makes Plea to Preserve Church Property

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Friday, June 22, 2007

Breakaway members of an Episcopal congregation in Colorado have made pleas to their congregation to help establish a new legal precedent in a court battle over church property.

Congregants of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church who voted to split from The Episcopal Church last month continue to worship at the multi-million dollar church property while those that voted against the withdrawal claim the property rightfully belongs to The Episcopal Church.

Grace and St. Stephen's revealed in a news release Wednesday a plea made by the breakaway group on their website to "please make a donation to help us establish a new legal precedent and overturn the Colorado Mote decision that is used as the basis for differing to hierarchal structures," according to the Episcopal News Service.

Another request was made Thursday on the splinter group's website that read, "Please help us establish new legal precedent to preserve parish buildings for the purposes and faith for which they were intended."

The pleas were referring to the 1986 Bishop & Diocese of Colorado v. Mote decision that ruled The Episcopal Church was a "hierarchical church" and that the authoritative decision-making bodies within that church had determined that the minority that remained affiliated with The Episcopal Church was the "true group" which comprises St. Mary's Church and was entitled to the property.

The Mote case ruled that the Episcopal parish holds its property in trust "for the use of the general church."

In May, 370 votes were cast out of the 763 congregants at Grace and St. Stephen's who were eligible to vote by canon (church) law. An overwhelming 93 percent approved an earlier decision by the church vestry (governing board) to secede from The Episcopal Church and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – a mission initiative of the Church of Nigeria – citing TEC's departure from Christian orthodoxy and their desire to remain faithful to the Anglican Communion.

Beckett Stokes, the communications director for the Diocese of Colorado, argued that the vote has no legal grounding, explaining that The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church and that no vote taken by a congregation can dissolve a parish or change its affiliation.

Nevertheless, those who voted to leave celebrated a rebirth as Grace Church and St. Stephen's. Meanwhile, some 200 to 400 have remained with the Episcopal diocese and are worshipping nearby. And they have called "the secessionists" to give back the church property.

"If the secessionists understand that Mote is the controlling law, and Mote says they cannot take property when they leave the Episcopal Church, then they must understand that their continuing possession of the property is unlawful," said St. Stephen's Episcopal Church vestry member Timothy Fuller, according to the Episcopal News Service.

While the court battle is underway, Alan Crippen, spokesman for the splinter Grace Church and St. Stephen's, has noted that there are more conservative Anglicans affiliated with Anglican churches in the Global South than Episcopalians – who represent Anglicanism in the United States – in Colorado Springs. Four Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Colorado closed last year.