Warring Episcopalians in South Carolina court over $500 million in property

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Warring Episcopalians in South Carolina court over $500 million in property

BY HARRIET MCLEOD
CHARLESTON South Carolina Tue Jul 8, 2014 5:50pm EDT

(Reuters) - A dispute between the U.S. Episcopal Church and a breakaway diocese angered over its acceptance of gay rights wound up in court on Tuesday as a trial got under way to decide the fate of $500 million in historic real estate.

The fight pits the Diocese of South Carolina, consisting of some 50 parishes, against a national church it left in 2012 after the larger organization moved to ordain gay clergy and bless same-sex marriages.

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In addition to the disputed properties, at issue in the trial being held in rural St. George, is the name of the diocese, Behre said. The breakaway Diocese of South Carolina predates the national Episcopal Church by four years, said diocese spokeswoman Joy Hunter, who said it formed in 1785 and incorporated as an independent nonprofit in 1973.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/08/us-usa-episcopal-trial-idUSKBN0FD2IX20140708

[rug]

1. The breakaway groups, which are uniformly politically conservative, have uniformly lost these suits.

[hrmjustin]

2. The Episcopal Church wins all of these fights.

The Dioces of South Carolina has been reconstituted with a new bishop with loyal Episcopalians.

[okasha]

3. Every time one of these breakaway groups forms,

they're told they can't take the property with them. They invariably try, and they invariably lose.

[longship]

4. This is a state court?

Or is this a federal case. (Looks to me to be state, although article does not explicitly say.)

That could make a difference, couldn't it?

I hope the responders to this OP are correct that the breakaway diocese has no case here. (I just don't like to see the conservative church win this. )

It is interesting though.