Judge Gergel confirms and expands September 19 injunction affirming The Episcopal Church in South Carolina as the historic Diocese of South Carolina, noting “The Defendants [the disassociated diocese] here clearly violated the terms of the Court’s Order and Injunction.”
The US Supreme Court today denied a petition from a breakaway group, letting stand the decision of the South Carolina Supreme Court to return control of the Diocese of South Carolina and 28 church properties to The Episcopal Church and its recognized diocese, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina.
According to the state Supreme Court ruling, the disassociated Diocese of South Carolina would have to relinquish 29 church buildings. But that diocese’s officials soon indicated they would petition the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to overturn the state court decision, and on Friday, Feb. 9, that’s just what they did.
The Episcopal Church and its local diocese, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, have asked the state court in Dorchester County to dismiss a “betterments” lawsuit filed last month by a group that left the church in 2012.
Breakaway diocese seeks appeal of the property case from the US Supreme Court while also suing for compensation for “betterments” made at parishes recently ordered returned to the Episcopal Church.
In a highly anticipated ruling, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that 29 local parishes that left The Episcopal Church cannot take their property with them, a decision that could set the stage for a massive exchange of historic church properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The national Episcopal Church and its S.C. parishes proposed a settlement with a breakaway group earlier this month that would have ended litigation over $500 million worth of property. That offer was rejected today.
Bottom line: the Archbishop of Canterbury has not approved a primatial oversight scheme for the secessionist Diocese of South Carolina.
The South Carolina Diocese at the center of extended property disputes with the Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina is considering moving on and joining up
The South Carolina Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear the appeal of the Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina, the faithful diocese. This is the second heartening piece of news for the diocese. Two weeks ago the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals remanded a case to the U.S. District Court in Charleston; the district judge had refused to hear that case brought by the faithful diocese until the state case ran its course.