Breakaway Anglicans file petition for rehearing in U.S. Supreme Court

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The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear its case about the ownership status of 29 church properties across the state.

The state Supreme Court ruled in August that the diocese, which broke away from The Episcopal Church in 2012, must return the properties, which include St. Philip’s Church on Church Street and St. Michael’s Church on Broad Street.

The Rev. Jim Lewis, canon to the ordinary for the Diocese of South Carolina, said in a news release that the petition for a writ of certiorari (.pdf) focuses on the 1979 Jones v. Wolf Supreme Court ruling. That ruling says church property disputes may be settled by applying “neutral principles of law,” holding church property disputes to the same standard as secular disputes.

“Our petition addresses as the central issue in our litigation the following question: whether the ‘neutral principles of law’ approach to resolving church property disputes requires courts to recognize a trust on church property even if the alleged trust does not comply with the State’s ordinary trust and property law,” Lewis said.

He said the state Supreme Court’s ruling gives deference to a church’s hierarchy, which he said is a “non-neutral” view. Specifically, the petition refers to the court’s ruling that the churches’ assent to the Dennis Canon created an irrevocable trust.

Lewis added that at least seven state supreme courts have required the application of neutral trust principles in relation to church property but that in eight other states, including South Carolina, a “less than neutral” interpretation has been mandated, requiring courts to recognize trusts in church canons, even if the trusts don’t satisfy state law requirements.

“The U.S. Supreme Court is asked to take this case, because it represents a deep, acknowledged and fully matured split both among and within the nation’s courts over the meaning of … its ‘neutral principles of law’ approach,” Lewis said.

Lewis said he expects the Supreme Court will consider the request in the coming months; if the review is granted, he said a hearing would take place late this year or in the spring of 2019.

In a statement, the Right Rev. Gladstone Adams III, bishop of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, which aligns itself with The Episcopal Church, said the organization has received the petition and is reviewing it.

“At the same time, we continue to work and pray in the hope of unity and reconciliation,” he said.

The petition with the U.S. Supreme Court comes a little over two months after the state Supreme Court denied a request from the breakaway group to rehear the case. The group argued that the ruling that the Dennis Canon created an irrevocable trust — the crux of the state court’s decision — “is erroneous” and that the decision creates a precedent for religious organizations in South Carolina that wouldn’t be applied to secular ones.

The state court voted 2-2 on the rehearing motion, and it failed.

Over the past few months, the breakaway group and The Episcopal Church in South Carolina have also been meeting regularly with Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson Jr. for legal mediation to resolve the matter, but Lewis said the petition with the federal Supreme Court is separate from that.

“The mediation isn’t over until the judge says it’s over,” he said.

The breakaway group left the national Episcopal Church after the latter body tried to remove the Right Rev. Mark Lawrence as bishop. Disagreements about homosexuality and other “moral issues” also divided the church.