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Episcopal Diocese wins legal dispute with breakaway church

Dec. 21, 2011 | 18 comments

A Waukesha County judge has ruled in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee in a dispute over church property taken by an Elm Grove congregation when it broke away over theological differences in 2008.

The decision, by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis, means members of St. Edmund's Parish who left the Episcopal Church to align with a new, more theologically conservative Anglican province must relinquish all church property and vacate the building at 14625 Watertown Plank Road.

Milwaukee Bishop Steven Miller lauded the decision and said he will begin working with St. Edmund parishioners pushed out by the split in an effort to help rebuild their congregation.

"For three years, the members of St. Edmund's Episcopal Church have been denied the use of their rightful church home," he said. "I am grateful the property will once again be used for its original purpose - the work and witness of the Episcopal Church."

The Rev. Samuel Scheibler, who was installed as rector of St. Edmund's after the split, and the church's attorney did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Marsha Ohlgart, a former church leader named along with other members in the lawsuit, said she no longer attends the church and declined to comment on the decision.

St. Edmund's was the first congregation in Wisconsin to break away from the Episcopal Church over its positions on homosexuality and other theological issues. Since then others have followed suit.

They are among dozens of parishes and four U.S. dioceses - in Fort Worth, Texas; Pittsburgh; San Joaquin, Calif.; and Quincy, Ill. - that have split from the U.S. Episcopal Church in recent years, aligning themselves with more conservative provinces in North America, Africa and Latin America.

The schism followed decades of debate over the liberal direction of the U.S. church, which consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003 and in 2009 voted to allow the ordination of openly gay clergy.

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  1. Episcopaganism next victory leading to its complete irrelevance.
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    • Just looking at the numbers, northshore2, it looks like the Episcopal Diocese is doing better and better and the breakaway congregations are smaller and losing congregants. So technically, I'd say it's the breakaways that are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
      Merry Christmas to all Christians, including those who are gay!
    • apparently your numbers are from Candy Cane Lane - with congregations joining more Gospel centered Episcopals and those joining the new Anglican Rite of the Catholic Church ... mainline Episcopalism is shrinking into nothingness
    • With 80 million or so worldwide in The Anglican Communion, a few or even a few dozen breakaway congregations do not mean that Episcopalism is "shrinking into nothingness." And the more than 2 million in the Episcopal Church in the US and a few million more in Canada, 'nothingness' also doesn't describe the state of membership in North America. And you offer a useless -- and insulting -- distinction between the breakaway churches and the larger church body, namely "gospel-centered." There is not one Episcopal church that is not "gospel-centered." Don't agree? Well join the list of countless Protestants and Catholics who have disagreed with each others' doctrines over the centuries. There have been schisms for centuries and there will continue to be many more.
    • Where are you finding your numbers, WLake. The episcopagans, themselves, demonstrate fewer than 2 million, with only around 600,000 in church on Sundays. The "diocese" of Milwaukee is in permanent decline. The majority of "world-wide" Anglicans are found in the African dioceses, and they are orthodox in belief. Get your facts right before you spew politically biased opinions.
  2. This is the right decision. The breakaway church made a decision to break away based on their more antiquated and conservative attitudes toward the rights of gay people in the church and in so doing took the responsibility for finding its own new home. the building and other facilities did not belong to the one congregation and they knew that when they broke away. It was a risk they took and only they could decide if, by being exclusionary, they would be willing to give up their building. May they find a building with no windows that matches their closed-mindedness and hate! And may the Episcopal Diocese flourish!
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  3. So the break-a-way church (the losers in this case), actually broke one of the ten commandments...THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

    Conservatives think they have a right to whatever they want. Scott Walker's father is a conservative minister... so he was raised with "stealing in the name of God/Jesus".

    I'm glad that the Episcopal Church got back what was rightfully theirs. Unfortunately, the privious congregation will not be what it once was BEFORE their church was stolen from them.

    Let the conservatives meet at someone's house. Better yet... let them tailgate at a Packer game.
  4. Naughty, Naughty, how can a judge mix his secular decision with Church? He has no right to mix church and State! Right?
  5. Does anyone know the details surrounding the Anglican non-renewal of Elm Grove Pre-School's lease last summer? It is my understanding that, despite being a tenant for 30 years in the basement of the Episcopal property, the school was not informed that their lease would not be renewed by the Anglicans. It was only a few weeks before the lease was to expire that an Anglican parent asked the school what it was planning to do since the church wasn't going to renew their lease. Apparently, it was news to the school who then had to scramble to find a new property and move all their classrooms and equipment in a matter of weeks. Illegal? No, despite being a tenant for 30 years no assumptions should be made on lease contracts, I guess. Practicing Christian values? That's a different story. I'm glad the building is being returned to its rightful owners. Based on the three-quarters empty parking lot every Sunday, perhaps a little "downsizing" will be a blessing for the Anglicans.
  6. Does anyone know the details surrounding the Anglican non-renewal of Elm Grove Pre-School's lease last summer? It is my understanding that, despite being a tenant for 30 years in the basement of the Episcopal property, the school was not informed that their lease would not be renewed by the Anglicans. It was only a few weeks before the lease was to expire that an Anglican parent asked the school what it was planning to do since the church wasn't going to renew their lease. Apparently, it was news to the school who then had to scramble to find a new property and move all their classrooms and equipment in a matter of weeks. Illegal? No, despite being a tenant for 30 years no assumptions should be made on lease contracts, I guess. Practicing Christian values? That's a different story. I'm glad the building is being returned to its rightful owners. Based on the three-quarters empty parking lot every Sunday, perhaps a little "downsizing" will be a blessing for the Anglicans.
    Hide replies
  7. Just what you need. Another empty church for sale....
  8. This is a great example of the outdated, biased practice of sheltering churches from taxation. It is obvious from the law that the Episcopal Church is the rightful and clear owner of the property. This case would have been cleared long ago had it been treated as the commercial property that it and all churches truly hold.

    The notion that churches are not-for-profit is simply false - bleeding their members for "the diocese," or whatever you want to call their corporation. Witness many churches hiding behind their not-for-profit status to avoid criminal prosecution. Where is there "god?"

    The ultimate Ponzi scheme with the false, unconscionable promise of existence after death. So appealing and unassailable, it preys on the naive, the good-hearted, and the desperate.
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