[Episcopal News Service] A South Carolina state judge has ruled that the minority of the members of the parish of All Saints, Waccamaw in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina who remained loyal to the Episcopal Church do, in fact, constitute All Saints’ Episcopal congregation.
The ruling arose from two different lawsuits, the earliest filed in 2000, over the issue of who owns the 50-acre campus that is also home to the breakaway Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). One of the cases arose in 2000 when the Diocese of South Carolina filed a public notice that All Saints, subject to applicable canon law, holds its property in trust for the diocese and the Episcopal Church as a whole. Attorneys for the diocese said that the notice was filed “out of concern that All Saints might attempt to convey its property” to the AMiA.
Read it all with special attention to the judge’s reasoning. The Episcopal Church will be in a strong legal position if this logic is embraced by courts in other states.