Interesting point.
The time has come for very aggressive legal action.
The time has also come for the regular congregation, the whole 200 of them, to show up on Sunday, come inside, refuse to leave, and take over the building. The vestrymen formally have custody, right?
Well, if all 200 people are IN THE BUILDING, and the vestrymen are IN THE BUILDING, they will have taken control BACK, won't they? And they will be able to go right in and GET THE KEYS, won't they?
THEN what will the "bishop" or the priestess do, hmmmm?
She'll flee the building.
And the building will be BACK in control of the parish. Possession is 9/10ths of the law.
THAT would be the sort of "BIG THING" that Sionnsar was speaking of elsewhere.
Play the "bishop's" game by emulating his tactics. The sherriffs are not going to intervene and take sides here. It will have to be litigated, and litigation with the parish in possession of the Church (and calling on Canterbury and elsewhere) is a position that can win. Standing in the parking lot and being offended means defeat.
If the vestry takes action that makes them no better than this storm-trooper bishop, then the judge will wash his hands of the lot of them.
While courts will not intervene in religious disputes, they WILL intervene in property matters.
Time for the vestry's lawyer to get off his behind and file an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. That should have been written yesterday and served on the bishop this morning.
Of course, if the bishop took over the building and their papers, they may not have any money to pay a lawyer -- but the individual vestry members are just going to have to come up with it.
I would also be contemplating a suit against the bishop personally as well as the diocese . . . pleading for hefty damages for breach of contract, trespassing, RICO, and anything else that seemed colorable.
The vestry's lawyer needs to move in. NOW. Yesterday. I don't know what's keeping him.