Local Breakaway Episcopal Church Awarded Church Property

Today the Los Angeles Times reports on a decision by an Orange County, California Superior Court judge that awarded millions of dollars of church property to the breakaway Newport Beach parish that severed ties with the Episcopal Church over scriptural teaching and homosexuality. Judge David C. Velasquez's rejected the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles' claim that under canon law the local congregation, St. James Episcopal Church, held the property in trust for the diocese, and that it forfeited any right to the buildings and other property, including hymnals, when it broke with the diocese and national church. He said that church property disputes must be resolved under neutral principles of law. The diocese said it would appeal the ruling, which also relied on First Amendment free expression rights of the church.