The first church that I served after seminary was St. Francis. I was the assistant rector and I can say now that I've never been prouder of this congregation. ed.
From El Paso Inc.:
By Timothy Roberts
When St. Francis on the Hill Episcopal Church voted to leave the Episcopal denomination in October, members of the El Paso parish intended to keep the church building and other property.
Now as the parishioners of the renamed St. Francis on the Hill Anglican Church, they are suing the denomination in a preemptive strike to prevent it from attempting to take back the property.
Such disputes are not uncommon, but this case could become the first of its kind to make it to a jury trial. Previous cases stemming from parishes and dioceses withdrawing from the Episcopal Church have been decided by judges. No case has so far made it to a trial by a jury.
The St. Francis case had been headed to trial Oct. 2, but after a hearing Sept. 17, the case was delayed until Feb. 5. The delay will give Judge Gonzolo Garcia of the 210th District Court in El Paso time to rule on motions that could determine the outcome of the case without a trial.
“Give me a summary judgment and let them appeal,” St. Francis attorney Richard Munzinger said at the hearing.
“We won’t enforce any action until the Court of Appeals (also) has ruled,” said Harrel Davis, who represents the Episcopal Church.
The dispute arises from the perception by some Episcopalians that the church denomination has drifted to the left. Rumblings of discontent were heard as far back as the 1970s when the church first ordained women.
But the movement to leave the national church began in earnest after the Episcopal Church elected a gay man to become a bishop in 2003.
Once the largest Episcopal parish in El Paso, the Church of St. Clement in Downtown also disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church, but first made arrangements to pay the diocese $2 million for the property.
The St. Francis Church property on the Westside is valued by the Central Appraisal District at $2.5 million, although in this case there is no talk of a financial settlement.
Disaffiliating from a denomination often proves to be a complicated matter, which is what St. Francis is finding out.
St. Francis says it was formed as a non-profit organization under Texas law, and that law allows an organization to affiliate or not by a majority vote of its board of directors.
“Can the Episcopal Church trample on the rights of Texans?” Munzinger asked at the hearing.
But the Episcopal Church says that when the St. Francis church building was consecrated for worship, it was “secured for ownership and use by a parish … affiliated with this (denomination) and subject it its constitution and canons,” Episcopal attorneys wrote in response to the lawsuit, which was filed in October.
“Parishes cannot unilaterally withdraw from their dioceses or the Episcopal Church by a vote of their leadership or membership or through any other means,” the Episcopalians say in their counterclaim. The denomination wants the judge to rule that the property can be used only for the ministry and work of the Episcopal Church. It wants control turned over to the members who have remained loyal to the Episcopal Church. Those members, who still call themselves St. Francis Episcopal Church, meet each Sunday at a Jewish synagogue, Temple Mount Sinai on North Stanton Street.
If the Episcopal congregation regains control of the church building, it will have to come up with the funding to pay the costs of running the church.
“We have a continuing Episcopal congregation that is growing and would move in and would bear the same financial responsibilities that any congregation would,” said Rev. Canon Colin Kelly. He is the president of the Diocese’s Standing Committee, which serves as the diocese’s board of directors when there is no bishop. The Episcopal Diocese of Rio Grande is searching for a new bishop and plans to elect one April 24, “God willing,” Kelly says. At the beginning, the diocese might be asked to subsidize the salary of a full-time priest, he said.
There are about 2.15 million Episcopalians in the United States. El Paso is part of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, which has headquarters in Albuquerque. Although St. Francis Anglican has withdrawn from the Episcopal Church, it is still part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the offspring of the Church of England, which dates back to the English Reformation under King Henry VIII.
At the Sept. 17 hearing, both sides pressed the judge to rule on their motions for summary judgment. If Judge Garcia grants one or the other motion, there will be no need for a jury trial.
They also argued about how to select a jury. The judge said he was planning to request 80 potential jurors. They will be asked to fill out a questionnaire that among other things will ask them if they are Episcopalians or Anglicans.
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