Episcopal Life Online reports “..after meeting in a local community center for two and a half years, members of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Fallbrook in the Diocese of San Diego will celebrate Easter back in their church home.”
St. John’s senior warden, Kathy Wood, said she is overjoyed. “God is everywhere, but our history is in that building,” she said. She and other parishioners were displaced in 2006 when dissident members voted to realign the parish with the Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican Church of Uganda but claimed the property on Iowa Street in northern San Diego County.
A member since 1955, Wood said, “I’ve worked on the altar guild and sung in the choir for most of those years. We know who donated each beautiful gift for the altar and sacristy. Caring for my church is a sacred trust and I’m glad to be allowed to do that again.”
On March 11, the California Supreme Court dismissed a petition for review, effectively ending claims that dissident members had the authority to take possession of the church building and corporate assets.
The church’s return is covered today by the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Fallbrook Bonsall Village News. Commenting to Village News report, David Fenton writes:
I am the Rector Emeritus of St. John’s Episcopal Church, having retired in 1996. I wish to compliment Andrea Verdin on an excellent article. I hope that you will give equal attention to the joyous return of the Episcopalians to their building on Easter Sunday, with San Diego Bishop Mathes presiding. We had a long, difficult 2-1/2 years in legal procedings to regain our property. I also hope that you will follow up on what the dissidents, who aligned with the Anglican Province of Uganda, did to the contents of the building and the financial records.