Via Stand Firm:
by JENNIFER KABBANY - For the North County Times (CA)
Friday, February 20, 2009 9:09 AM PST ∞
As legal battles over property rights and organizational authority play out between the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego and two breakaway churches in North County, leaders of those two congregations insist the real conflict is over core religious beliefs.
The California Supreme Court recently issued two decisions with implications for St. Anne's in Oceanside and St. John's in Fallbrook, both of which seceded from the Episcopal Church and joined foreign dioceses within the global Anglican Communion three years ago.
A Jan. 5 court ruling in favor of the national Episcopal church in its legal battle against three Los Angeles and Orange County breakaway congregations attempting to keep their properties is being cited by the San Diego diocese as strengthening its case against St. Anne's and St. John's. The two North County churches continue to meet in their existing buildings as Anglican congregations ---- with the San Diego diocese suing to regain control of those properties.
On Jan. 14, the state high court also agreed to hear an appeal over whether leaders of the Fallbrook congregation had the authority to split from the diocese in 2006. That case could take months or longer to resolve, and if the court rules the local congregation didn't follow proper procedures in its split from the diocese, then its ownership of the property will probably also be called into question.
Despite the ongoing legal battles, leaders of the two breakaway congregations said their members are not anxious about what the future may hold. They said ultimately it's not about buildings, but beliefs.
"The underlying problem that led to this is a completely different understanding as to what is the foundation of moral authority, whether it is biblical or whether it is something people can vote on," said the Rev. Don Kroeger, senior pastor of what is now St. John's Anglican Church in Fallbrook.
The Episcopal Church is the American component of the global Anglican Communion, tying together various national churches to the mother Church of England ---- although that structure is starting to crack. According to the Episcopal Church, 83 parishes have voted to leave the church out of about 7,100 nationally, with most of them affiliating with overseas Anglican bishops.
The Rev. Tony Baron, senior pastor at St. Anne's Anglican Church in Oceanside, said some national Episcopal Church leaders have said they do not believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, or have taken other positions that "deny the apostolic faith of the church."
"Three years ago we were the first congregation to leave with our facility, and it had to do with the Episcopal Church's stand on Scripture," he said. "We are very much committed to the unique deity of Jesus Christ."
Some Episcopal Church decisions, such as the ordination in 2003 of an openly gay bishop, have also upset some members.
"They would describe it as how God is speaking to the modern church," Kroeger said of the changes seen in the Episcopal Church in recent years. "We believe God has spoken once and for all, and his word is the same yesterday, today and forever."
Hannah Miller, communications coordinator for the San Diego diocese, has a different take.
"We have always been a denomination where differing opinions exist together," she said, noting that the faith dates back centuries and was founded by Queen Elizabeth I to try to stop Catholics and Protestants from killing each other. "It created a middle way."
Today's church leaders continue to take from that first example, she said.
"Scripture, reason, tradition. Those are the three things that bind us together, the three cornerstones of our faith," Miller said. "We encourage differing opinions, and coming to the table and breaking bread. It's just a much richer experience when you are able to engage with people who think differently from you. It just makes your spirituality much more alive."
When the Fallbrook congregation voted to leave the Episcopal Church, not all agreed with the split.
Those who stayed with the diocese have been meeting at the Fallbrook Community Center as St. John's Episcopal Church, a congregation of about 30 to 60 people, said Wayne Sanders, priest in charge. Sanders formerly led a congregation in San Diego.
Miller said the diocese hopes the two Fallbrook groups can reunite if and when the diocese prevails in court and gains control of the Iowa Street property, a single-story church built in the 1950s with a small bell tower and red brick trim.
"Everybody will be welcome to come back to St. John's," Miller said. "This was their church home."
Sanders said a reconciliation would be a good thing.
"I think when we get back together, we'll appreciate each other more," he said. "In the Episcopalian Church you can have differences of opinion and still be one, just like a family."
But Kroeger said a reunion is unlikely.
He said the two groups currently share prayer lists and are friendly when they bump into each other in town. But it's not always easy, he added.
"These are people that worshiped together for years and years, and now they are no longer part of the same church family," said Kroeger, 65, who has been with the congregation for 12 years. "It's a heartbreak. We don't see that there is any basis for reconciliation with what we consider another gospel."
What's more, his 100-member congregation recently voted to join a newly forming Southern California diocese of the Anglican Church of North America, which hopes to be accepted as a part of the global Anglican Communion. That should be established by April, he said.
If the Fallbrook congregation loses in court, it has other options, Kroeger said. A local church has offered its facilities to the Anglican group in the afternoons, he said.
St. Anne's Baron said that, unlike the situation in Fallbrook, when his Oceanside congregation split from the Episcopal church, nearly the entire congregation was in agreement.
There is no minority group meeting elsewhere in the city. If the Anglicans lose access to their West Street church through the courts, so be it, he said.
"Our church has grown in the last three years from 225 to 462 regular members," he said. "God has really blessed our congregation.
"It's not about winning or losing. The church is not a building; it's people."
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