COLORADO SPRINGS: Closing Arguments In Grace Church Trial

[david at virtueonline.org]

COLORADO SPRINGS: Closing Arguments In Grace Church Trial

By Samantha Anderson 
http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9989377
March 11, 2009

A trial to resolve ownership over a multi-million dollar church is one step closer to being decided.  Closing arguments wrapped up on Wednesday in the month long trial.   

Ownership claims of the historic landmark have been in dispute since it's congregation decided to leave the Episcopal Church in March of 2007. The diocese and Grace Church have battled back in forth in what many are calling a "messy divorce."  

"It's analogous to a marriage that started 135 years ago, the local Episcopal body in Colorado Springs married the Episcopal church, bringing the house, our church, into the marriage" stated Reverend Alan Crippen of Grace Church and St. Stephen's.

Troubles in the marriage worsened when the Episcopalian church filed suit against former reverend Donald Armstrong. "Now we're looking essentially at a divorce," said Rev. Crippen.  

Armstrong claims he retained possession of the church's property after leaving the church in 2006, but the Episcopal Church of Colorado disagrees. They argue the parish is a subsidy body of a larger body.  

The trial has been of high interest to churchgoers on both sides of the parish. "It's been fairly evenly divided in trial, have been capacity crowds, room is slated for 94, I've counted 93," stated churchgoer Karl Weiskopf. Members are concerned about the future. 

"Local residents on both sides have an understandable attachment to this glorious, beautiful facility," Rev. Crippen said. 

Judge Larry Schwartz said at the end of trial that this will not be a simple decision. A ruling is expected in the next few weeks. 

END

Colorado Springs church battle up to judge 
The Episcopal diocese and breakaway members each claim to own the landmark.

By Electa Draper 
The Denver Post 
3/12/2009 

COLORADO SPRINGS - The Colorado Episcopal Diocese and a breakaway congregation of conservative former Episcopalians - now Anglicans - ended a five-week court battle Wednesday that will determine which group gets to keep the historic Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish.

After hearing their closing arguments, El Paso County District Judge Larry Schwartz said he hoped to rule on this complex case of religious real estate within a month.

Ownership of the Tejon Street landmark has been in dispute since a majority of the resident congregation and its senior pastor, the Rev. Don Armstrong, voted in the spring of 2007 to leave the Episcopal Church. They split over thorny theological questions, such as gay marriage and gay ordination.

Armstrong's rebellious parish left the Episcopal Church but kept the church building. They filed suit against the diocese to resolve the ownership question, officials said, after the diocese attempted to freeze the congregation's bank accounts.

Armstrong and the breakaway congregation's attempt to hold on to its historic church is one of more than 50 such cases involving former Episcopalian congregations. In December, a Virginia court ruled in favor of a dozen breakaway congregations, allowing them to keep their church buildings. In January, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church in property disputes with three breakaway congregations.

Grace Church, which held its first worship service here in 1872, currently occupies properties valued for insurance purposes at $17 million.

"This was the biggest church in the diocese, the most powerful and the most conservative," said Greg Walta, attorney for Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish.

Attorneys for the national Episcopal Church and the Colorado diocese and its bishop, the Right Rev. Robert O'Neill, argued that Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish is a subsidiary of the denomination and therefore held the property in trust for the denomination, not for its own congregation.

"People who think the Episcopal Church has gone astray are free to leave," said the diocese's attorney, Martin Nussbaum. "They aren't free to take church property with them."

Walta countered that neutral principles of property law apply in this case, not church canons.

"It isn't an article of faith that you have to give up the property you've fought and bled for to some national corporation," Walta said.

Grace Church reorganized in 1973 as an independent Colorado nonprofit corporation, Walta said, and it never explicitly agreed to hold property in trust for the Episcopal Church.

Walta said the Grace Church and St. Stephen parishioners didn't change their religion.

"The Episcopal Church changed its colors and its theology," he said.

END