UPDATE: Press release from the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and link to the ruling below.
A court in California issued a judgment earlier this week regarding a number of findings in the ongoing litigation surrounding the Diocese of San Joaquin and the Episcopalians who left the diocese and associated with the Anglican Church in North America.
The continuing diocese of Fort Worth in Texas has issued a press release noting a number of key points that are now a matter of law in the California case that may have bearing on a number of other cases around the country.
From a statement by the Diocese of Fort Worth:
The 21-page decision confirms as a matter of law that:
- The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church as a matter of law;
- The legal analysis in other cases involving parishes attempting to leave the Episcopal Church apply to a case in which a diocese attempts to leave the Episcopal Church;
- Attempts by a diocese to amend its Constitution, canons, or corporate documents to (1) limit its unqualified accession to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, (2) purport to leave the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, or (3) change the manner of determining who is the diocesan bishop is ultra vires (beyond its powers) and void;
- Civil courts must accept as binding and defer to decisions of the Episcopal Church to recognize the provisional bishop and other diocesan officials who were installed after the former diocesan officials left the Episcopal Church;
- The person who is recognized by the Episcopal Church as the bishop is the legal incumbent of the office of the bishop of the diocese, not a former bishop who left the Episcopal Church; and
- When members left the Episcopal Church, the Church has a right to name their successors in diocesan offices.
UPDATE: July 25
Statement from the Presiding Bishop is here.
ENS story here.
You may read the full release below.
———————————————–
For Immediate release
July 24, 2009
THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF FORT WORTH
The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. [Ted] Gulick, Jr., the Standing Committee, and the Board of Trustees of the Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth welcome the July 21, 2009 decision of the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, Central Division that grants a summary adjudication to the continuing Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin in its litigation regarding which leaders have authority over the diocese and its property.
This California decision joins other courts in Texas and other states in affirming the legal positions asserted by the continuing Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, its Diocesan Corporation, and the Episcopal Church in litigation filed on April 21, 2009 in the 141st District Court in Fort Worth against former bishop Jack Iker and others who left the Episcopal Church but still claim the right to exercise authority on behalf of the diocese and to control diocesan property.
The 21-page decision confirms as a matter of law that:
- The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church as a matter of law;
- The legal analysis in other cases involving parishes attempting to leave the Episcopal Church apply to a case in which a diocese attempts to leave the Episcopal Church;
- Attempts by a diocese to amend its Constitution, canons, or corporate documents to (1) limit its unqualified accession to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, (2) purport to leave the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, or (3) change the manner of determining who is the diocesan bishop is ultra vires (beyond its powers) and void;
- Civil courts must accept as binding and defer to decisions of the Episcopal Church to recognize the provisional bishop and other diocesan officials who were installed after the former diocesan officials left the Episcopal Church;
- The person who is recognized by the Episcopal Church as the bishop is the legal incumbent of the office of the bishop of the diocese, not a former bishop who left the Episcopal Church; and
- When members left the Episcopal Church, the Church has a right to name their successors in diocesan offices.
Former leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin left the Episcopal Church in 2007 to affiliate with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone; former bishop Jack Iker and other leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth did so in 2008.
These conclusions apply to the Fort Worth dispute in that the continuing diocese seeks similar declarations that Bishop Ted Gulick, not Jack Iker, is legally recognized as the bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth and as chairman of the board of the Diocesan Corporation and that other officers, not those who have left the Episcopal Church, have legal authority to act for the continuing diocese.
Bishop Gulick said, “The Episcopal Church in Fort Worth is gratified by the decision of the Superior Court of California, Fresno County, recognizing the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb and those clergy and laity loyal to the Episcopal Church in the United States as the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. We feel that the norms of Episcopal Church reality and its hierarchical nature were accurately described in the court’s decision. They affirm the same arguments on which we base our own legal claims. Since this reality is made abundantly clear in the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church, it is unfortunate that so much effort and financial resources were necessary to ratify what has been our church’s consistent understanding. Those of us defending the heritage of this part of the Episcopal Church in North Texas as well as it resources are greatly encouraged.”
This declaration is the first step for Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin in recovering the Episcopal Church property, including funds, to continue the numerous and varied ministries of the Episcopal Church in central California.
The plaintiffs in the California case are the Diocese of San Joaquin; the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb, in his capacity as the Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin; and the Episcopal Church. The defendants are “John Mercer Schofield, also known as John-Davis [sic] Schofield, an individual; The Episcopal Foundation of San Joaquin, Inc. an unknown entity; the Diocesan Investment Trust of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, a California corporation; The Anglican Diocese Holding Corporation; Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., a Delaware corporation (d/b/a Merrill Lynch); and DOES 1-300, inclusive.”
The next step is to account for and recover the church property to the control of authorized diocesan officials.
A copy of the decision is posted on the diocesan website at www.episcopaldiocesefortworth.org
Media contact:
Katie Sherrod
Communications Director
Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth
3550 Southwest Loop 820
Fort Worth, TX 76133
CommunicationsDirector@EpiscopalDioceseFortWorth.org
817 909 0070 [cell]
________________________________
PRESS RELEASE FROM SAN JOAQUIN
Court Determines that Bishop Lamb is the Bishop of the Diocese
On July 23, 2009, the Diocese received an order issued by the Superior Court of Fresno County, California, sustaining the position of the Church and the Diocese that the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb is the Bishop of the Diocese and the officeholder of the Diocesan corporations, and that former Bishop John-David Schofield is no longer the Bishop and has no claim to any of the corporate or ecclesiastical offices of the Diocese.
In reaching this conclusion, the Court found that there is no question that The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church, of which the Diocese is an integral part. It also held that “If the Constitution of the Diocese incorporates and accedes to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, which require accession, then the Constitution of the Diocese cannot be amended to remove such language.” The Court additionally ruled that the continuing Diocese of San Joaquin is “not a new organization” created after former Bishop Schofield attempted to remove the Diocese from the Church, but that the Diocese “is the older organization from which ([defendant] Schofield and the other) defendants removed themselves.”
On that basis, the Court also ruled that the amendments to the Diocesan Constitution, Canons, and corporate documents that purported to take the Diocese out of the Episcopal Church were void and invalid.
The order will greatly expedite the resolution of the remainder of the case, which will ultimately provide for the recovery of the Diocese’s properties and assets so that the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin can continue to pursue its ministry to the central third of California utilizing these resources.
A copy of the Court’s Order is posted on the diocesan website.