Lawsuit Attempts To Prevent Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese From Taking Property

Episcopal News Service yesterday reported on the latest legal steps being taken by the Episcopal Church of the United States to prevent the break-away Pittsburgh Diocese from taking church property with it. In 2005, a Pennsylvania state court approved the settlement of a lawsuit challenging the first steps by the diocese to break away and claim title to parish properties. The settlement provided that even if the majority of the diocese's congregations decide not to remain in the Episcopal Church, any diocesan real estate and endowments would be held by the remaining diocesan structure. Now that the Diocese last month took more formal steps to withdraw, plaintiffs in the earlier case have petitioned the court to enforce the 2005 settlement. A petition (full text) filed in Calvary Episcopal Church v. Duncan, (Com. Pl. Allegheny Co., Dec. 19, 2006), alleges that defendants are attempting to remove property from the Episcopal Church. It asks the court to order an accounting of the Diocese's real and personal property, and its use, since 2003 and to prohibit transfer of Diocese property to other entities.