Legal Background:

The Anglican District of Virginia (“ADV”), incorporated on December 5, 2006, is an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia and part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (“CANA”). ADV members are in full communion with constituent members of the Anglican Communion through their affiliation with CANA, a missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria, and other Anglican Communion Archbishops and Bishops. ADV members are thus a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a community of 77 million people.

The Episcopal Church’s Rejection of Authority of Scripture Causes Rift:

Because The Episcopal Church and The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia (“Diocese”) separated themselves from the historic Christian faith and are in broken or impaired communion with some two-thirds of the constituent members of the worldwide Anglican Communion, in mid-December 2006, eight Virginia Episcopal congregations voted to disassociate from The Episcopal Church and the Diocese in order to remain faithful to the historic doctrine of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

These eight churches chose to hold steadfast to historic faith and to Scripture, the authority of which was formally rejected by The Episcopal Church. In its formal response to the Anglican Communion’s call to return to the authority of Scripture, The Episcopal Church said: “We cannot accept what would be injurious to this Church and could well lead to its permanent division.” The painful irony is that The Episcopal Church’s decision to reject the authority of God’s Word has been gravely injurious, and has itself caused the very division that the church’s leaders claimed they sought to avoid.

Implicitly acknowledging the division caused by The Episcopal Church, Virginia Bishop Peter Lee had appointed a Reconciliation Commission whose charge was to find a means of reconciliation of the break caused by The Episcopal Church. In further recognition of the split, Bishop Lee next appointed a Special Committee whose responsibility was to craft an orderly process that would allow parishes to depart amicably.

The Special Committee’s report, called the “Protocol for Departing Congregations,” was adopted by Bishop Lee. The Protocol included provisions for a congregational vote on the question of dissociation and for negotiating an amicable settlement regarding property ownership upon a congregational vote to dissociate. At least eight Virginia congregations voted overwhelmingly in accordance with the Protocol to disaffiliate. To comply with the requirements of the Virginia Division Statute, Virginia Code § 57-9, which recognizes the right of a congregation to keep its property when a majority votes to separate from a divided denomination, the voting churches reported to their local circuit courts their votes to disaffiliate from The Episcopal Church and the Diocese and to affiliate with CANA through membership in ADV.

Also after the congregational votes, Bishop Lee appointed a Property Commission to represent the Diocese in the property negotiations called for by the Protocol. Bishop Lee asked each departing congregation to appoint its own negotiating team and compile information to be used in the negotiations. Bishop Lee also asked for a standstill agreement with the departing congregations, which would assure that no adversarial litigation would be filed. That standstill agreement recognized that the filing of reports by voting congregations in accordance with the Virginia Division Statute did not constitute adverse litigation otherwise prohibited by the standstill agreement.

The departing congregations were focused on working with the Diocese to settle the matter cordially and equitably and to negotiate a reasonable solution. Just as the parties were ready to begin the Protocol property settlement negotiations, The Episcopal Church and the Diocese abruptly reversed themselves, cut off negotiations, cancelled the standstill agreement, and instituted litigation.

On multiple occasions since then, these ADV member churches have invited The Episcopal Church and the Diocese to return to the negotiating table. The leaders of the Anglican Communion have echoed that call. But The Episcopal Church and the Diocese refuse. They say they will settle for nothing less than each church’s eviction from its sanctuary and other property.

The Episcopal Church and the Diocese File Lawsuits

On January 31, 2007, the Diocese sued eleven of the ADV member congregations, including their rectors, vestries, and in some instances, their trustees, claiming that it had a right to their church property under denominational trust rights created by church canons and asserting various common law claims for conversion, trespass, alienation and accounting arising out of such alleged property rights.

Then, on February 9, 2007, The Episcopal Church sued these same eleven ADV member congregations, including their rectors, vestries, and in some instances, their trustees, also claiming that it had a right to their church property under those same denominational trust rights.

In their response to these lawsuits, the ADV churches and all of the individually-named defendants articulated the following responses:

1. Neither The Episcopal Church nor the Diocese has a legally enforceable claim to the churches’ property on an assertion of trust-based rights, because Virginia law does not recognize either express or implied denominational trusts in their property.

2. All of the Diocese’s claims of conversion, trespass, alienation or accounting that are based upon the Diocese’s claimed ownership of property must fail since the Diocese admitted that these churches are the owners of their property and that it owns none of the church property. The Episcopal Church also admitted in its complaint that it does not own any of the property of these eleven churches and that these eleven churches are the owners of all of their property.

3. The individual defendants sued by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese serve as officers, directors or trustees without compensation and thus are immune altogether from suit by Virginia statute or cannot be properly sued as a matter of Virginia corporation law.
All Cases Consolidated:

On April 20, 2007, in response to a motion of all parties, the eight division statute cases, eleven Diocese suits against the churches, their clergy, vestries, and trustees, and the one The Episcopal Church suit against the same eleven churches, their clergy, vestries and trustees were transferred and consolidated in the Fairfax County Circuit Court and one judge, The Hon. Randy I. Bellows, was appointed to hear the consolidated matter. From this point on, the lawsuit has been known as Multi-Circuit Episcopal Church Litigation, Case No. CL-2007-0248724, Fairfax County Circuit Court.

The Episcopal Church Sought to Add More Unpaid Volunteers to the Lawsuit:

After consolidation, The Episcopal Church and the Diocese sought to add 76 additional unpaid church volunteers to the lawsuit and anyone else who might in the future volunteer to serve as a Vestry member or Trustee of any of the local churches.

The ADV churches opposed this effort at further intimidation, contending that unpaid volunteer Vestry members and Trustees have made no individual claims to the church property, and Virginia law grants complete immunity from civil liability to those who serve religious organizations without pay. The Episcopal Church and the Diocese had already sued almost 100 unpaid church volunteers who were immune from being sued

Ultimately, on August 10, 2007, all individual defendants were dismissed from the lawsuits except for trustees who remain nominal defendants solely in their capacity as property trustees.

The court also entered a scheduling order to govern the entire case. The court bifurcated the issues, setting the Virginia Division Statute cases for trial in November and postponing consideration of al remaining claims until after the November trial.

The trial of the Virginia Division Statute petitions was held in November 2007 and on April 3, 2008, Judge Randy Bellows issued a letter opinion in which he ruled that the ADV Congregations had satisfied the requirements to invoke the division statute.  On May 28, 2008, he heard oral arguments on whether the statute was unconstitutional and a decision is pending. 

ADV Remains Steadfast in Faith:

The ADV churches have chosen to stay with the worldwide Anglican Communion and to be steadfast in their faith.

While the ADV churches are confident in their legal position, they remain willing to resolve amicably their differences with The Episcopal Church and Diocese of Virginia. The churches believe that the lawsuits are an unfortunate distraction from the good work the churches are doing as servants of Christ.

Documents pertaining to the legal case are in the folders below.  These documents include the Division Statute petitions by the congregations, the lawsuits filed by The Episcopal Church and The Diocese of Virginia and the response of the Congregations to the lawsuits.  The transcripts of the November trial and the opening statements of the attorneys as well as the post-trial briefings requested by Judge Randy Bellows are also available.