Episcopal Diocese Demands Property

Attorneys for the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles on Friday gave three breakaway parishes until Monday to either surrender their church properties, even their prayer books, or to stop using them until the church or civil courts decide who is the rightful owner.

The parishes were also given five days to deliver financial statements, copies of all bank accounts and investment portfolios, and their registers of members.

Over the last two weeks, the three conservative parishes -- All Saints in Long Beach, St. James in Newport Beach and St. David’s in North Hollywood -- declared that they had pulled out of the national Episcopal Church and no longer considered Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno their leader. The parishes placed themselves under the jurisdiction of an Anglican diocese in Uganda run by a conservative bishop who agrees with their more orthodox biblical interpretations and views on homosexuality.

On Friday, in hand-delivered letters to the three parishes, Los Angeles diocesan attorney John R. Shiner of Morrison & Foerster said the congregations were in violation of church canons and California civil law and could face a lawsuit.

Church buildings and all property were “irrevocably dedicated to the church and the diocese under the jurisdiction of the bishop,” according to the statement.

The letter sought to prohibit the secessionist parishes from using not only the church buildings but also the hymnals and the Book of Common Prayer, which is central to Episcopal and Anglican worship.

Father Praveen Bunyan, rector of St. James, called the ultimatum by the diocese unfortunate.

“We’re just worshiping in our own property,” he said. “We’re doing what is legally our right. We will continue to have worship services here. We have peace about it.”

Bunyan said parish attorneys would review the letter over the weekend before any further comment. The Rev. William Thompson, rector at All Saints, issued a similar statement.

Leaders of St. David’s could not be reached, but they had previously said that they held title to the property and were confident they would win in any possible legal tussle.

In the last week, the parishes said they had amended their articles of incorporation to delete all references to the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church, which is the American arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The decision by the three parishes to break away followed similar steps over the last year by an estimated seven other parishes nationwide and was further evidence of deep divisions within the denomination, which has more than 7,300 parishes in the United States.

Several of the breakaway priests in Southern California cited the Episcopal Church’s approval last year of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire, and the Los Angeles bishop’s decision to officiate at the same-sex blessing of one of his priests and the priest’s partner of 20 years in May.

Bruno, who oversees 147 parishes in six counties, has warned the clergy at the three parishes not to serve as priests or deacons and said they have six months to return to the fold or they will be defrocked. They have said they would ignore Bruno’s directives.

While the Los Angeles diocese was preparing for a likely lawsuit, Bruno was expected to preach about reconciliation Sunday at St. John’s Episcopal Church on West Adams Boulevard, near downtown.

“I never heard of Jesus closing a door on anyone,” Bruno said Thursday, “and I believe that I try to pattern my life after the Christ himself, who did not judge, who did not reject.”

Meanwhile, lay leaders at a parish that has remained within the church said they have begun raising funds to help the diocese defray legal costs to fight the three breakaway parishes, or to help make up for the cutoff of offerings from the conservative parishes to the diocese.

“I was very concerned that our bishop was out there hanging out on his own,” said Peter Juzwiak, senior warden of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City. He said his vestry had raised $2,500 toward a $5,000 goal and hopes to enlist other parishes in the effort.

Another vestry member at the Studio City parish, Jim Holmes, said, “We have allowed the religious right to hijack the word and name of Christian, and they are poisoning, in our minds, the vast majority of the faithful with a bunch of radical, fundamentalist ideas that do not represent us as Christians.”