News from the Diocese of Fort Worth:
On December 1, 2014, Plaintiffs The Episcopal Church, Local Episcopal Parties, and Local Episcopal Congregations filed a joint motion for partial summary judgment in the 141st District Court, the Honorable John P. Chupp presiding. As the motion states:
“Defendants are former Episcopalians who served as officers of The Episcopal Church’s Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. They gained access to more than $100 million of property in that capacity. They committed to use that property only for the benefit of the Church and its Diocese, and without those commitments, they never would have had access to the property. Now, Defendants have broken those agreements and purported to take the Episcopal Diocese and its Congregations, and along with them, all the property, out of The Episcopal Church and into another denomination.
The article concludes:
Under the Court’s Scheduling Order, the breakaway defendants also filed a motion for summary judgment on December 1. Each side will file a response to the other side’s motion by December 22 and then file a reply to the other party’s response by January 23. A hearing on the motions is set for February 20, 2015.
This on the heels of news out of Illinois last week that
The Illinois Supreme Court … denied a petition by the Episcopal Church to review the ruling of a lower court which had found that certain property of the former Episcopal Diocese of Quincy now belongs to a breakaway group organized as the Anglican Diocese of Quincy.
Bishop Lee is quoted responding,
“My first concern is to attend to the pastoral needs of the faithful Episcopalians in the Peoria deanery, who have shown such grace and fortitude as the legal process has unfolded. We are aware of our legal options and will consider them in due course.”
Posted by Rosalind Hughes