November 19, 2010
By Pat McCaughan

The ongoing property dispute between the continuing Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and a breakaway group is headed back to a Fresno County Superior Court, an appellate court ruled Nov. 18.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno reversed a July 21, 2009 trial court decision because it said that the lower court should have left to the church the determination of whether Bishop Jerry Lamb is the incumbent San Joaquin bishop and thereby entitled to administer diocesan property and assets. The appellate court said that determination was "quintessentially ecclesiastical [and] ... to be left to internal decision-making processes of the church itself" and not to the courts, according to the Nov. 18 opinion.

Nevertheless, the appellate court held that Lamb's status as the incumbent bishop could not be challenged in the courts, because it has been "finally resolved, for civil law purposes, by the Episcopal Church's recognition of Lamb as the bishop of that continuing entity." This result, the court said, is mandated by the First Amendment's requirement that disputes over "church governance and organization" must be "left to internal decision-making processes of the church itself."

Michael Glass, chancellor for the continuing Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, called the ruling "a technical procedural setback." But he noted, in a statement released by the continuing Episcopal diocese, that the court affirmed key "ecclesiastical facts ... thus resolving several substantive legal issues in favor of the diocese and the Episcopal Church."

The dispute stems from former bishop John-David Schofield's attempt to retain diocesan real property and assets after disaffiliating from the Episcopal Church in December 2007. He attempted to realign the Central California Valley diocese with the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. The group later affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America.

The appellate decision cited as facts from the record not subject to further adjudication by the trial court that:

• Schofield's powers as a bishop were suspended Jan. 11, 2008;

• Lamb became San Joaquin bishop on March 29, 2008; and that

• at some point Schofield presided over the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

Lamb and the continuing diocese sued Schofield and others in the breakaway group on April 24, 2008, after requests that they return diocesan property and assets were ignored.

Glass emphasized the appellate court's Nov. 18 affirmation of Lamb as bishop: "the continuity of the diocese as an entity within the Episcopal Church is likewise a matter of ecclesiastical law, finally resolved, for civil law purposes, by the Episcopal Church's recognition of Lamb as the bishop of that continuing entity."

Glass said that decision means that "the defendants can no longer assert in court that a diocese has the right to unilaterally secede from the Episcopal Church, or that Bishop Lamb is somehow not the bishop of the diocese."

Regarding other elements of the ongoing property dispute, the trial court should "resolve issues concerning property transfers assertedly made by Schofield while he was the duly constituted bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin," according to the appellate court.

Schofield allegedly transferred diocesan assets to the Anglican Diocese Holding Corporation after he was inhibited from exercising ministry in the Episcopal Church. ADHC's articles of incorporation were filed with the California Secretary of State in April 2008. ADHC has also been named as a defendant in the ongoing litigation over property and assets.

Glass said he is cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the pending litigation.

Schofield had appealed the trial court ruling, which held that Lamb is the bishop of the diocese and the incumbent of its Corporation Sole and other entities. Attempts by Schofield and others to modify the diocesan constitution and canons and articles of incorporation of the Corporation Sole to disaffiliate the diocese from the Episcopal Church were ruled null and void, according to that ruling.

There are six other issues related to the effort to recover diocesan real property that neither the trial court, nor the Court of Appeal has ruled upon that remain to be litigated.

Schofield could not be reached for comment.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Pat McCaughan is a national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service. She is based in Los Angeles.