Churches respond to diocese lawsuit

Deepa Bharath

Financial reasons motived the Episcopal Church’s lawsuits against

three seceded Southern California churches, including one on Via

Lido, attorneys for the churches said on Friday.

St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints’ in Long Beach and

St. David’s in North Hollywood, broke away from the Episcopal Church

USA, stating that they did not agree with the church’s liberal views

on homosexuality, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the supremacy of

the Bible. The seceded churches have placed themselves under the

Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican Province of Uganda, Africa.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Tuesday filed a lawsuit

against the three churches, members of the clergy and the boards of

directors, alleging that they had committed a breach of fiduciary

duty and were refusing to leave the property owned and operated by

and for Episcopalians. The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages from

the defendants.

St. James administrators maintain that they own the property under

a nonprofit organization called The Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of

St. James Parish in Newport Beach. But the diocese contends that all

property consecrated by the Episcopal Church belongs to it.

The churches lashed out at the diocese in a statement released

Friday through their attorney, Eric Sohlgren.

Sohlgren said that the diocese’s motive in filing the lawsuits was

financial and that the strong language in the lawsuit shows the

Episcopal Church’s “true colors.”

“The Episcopal Church is treating these churches as businesses,”

Sohlgren said. “ ... Does the Diocese really want a court order to

take away toys, crayons and paper crosses made by the Sunday school

children on the theory that they were purchased when the church was

Episcopal?”

Neither diocese officials nor their attorney, John Shiner, were

available for comment Friday.

While St. James pastor Praveen Bunyan vociferously denied that his

church was seceding purely because the Episcopal Church had appointed

an openly gay man as the Bishop of New Hampshire, the diocese’s

lawsuit pinpoints that the churches’ conservative view on

homosexuality was the reason they demanded to secede. The lawsuit

said the Bishop J. Jon Bruno, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Los

Angeles, was willing to provide the dissenting churches with a bishop

who was more in line with their beliefs and said he felt “betrayed”

by the churches’ actions.

It also leaves many loyal Episcopalians, who have been members for

decades, with no church to go to, the lawsuit said. Bruno, last week,

appointed priests-in-charge to continue ministries in the affected

communities. He also announced that the Episcopal Church has

officially fired members of the clergy and the vestry of all three

churches and that the priests-in-charge would appoint new rectors and

boards of directors in their assigned areas.

But Sohlgren contested that statement, saying that there were many

other Episcopal churches in the area within driving distance and that

those who wanted to remain faithful to the Episcopal Church could

attend.

“Two fundamental American values are at stake in these cases:

freedom of religion and property rights,” Sohlgren said. “The

churches are confident that the California court will respect these

rights and ultimately conclude that they, as separate California

religious corporations, can retain their properties and get on with

their ministries.”

* DEEPA BHARATH is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at

deepa.bharath@latimes.com.