Ping
Satan tries that tactic whenever he can. It's like the time Satan challenged God to a baseball game. God said, "You have no chance--I have all the best players." But Satan said, "Yes, but I have all the umpires."
It sure is a good thing we have an Advocate.
I can see the ECUSA’s side in this. A church facility, much like a school, does not really belong to the people who inhabit it at any given time to wit, now. It belongs to all those who came before, those who are there now, and generations yet to come.
Yet, given the ECs abominable current state of disarray, screw’em. These church bodies are merely holding the properties to save them from ultimate liquidation by the infidel.
I’d ask for sanctions against the denomination, their lawyers, and their leaders.
Legal Beagle Ping
No list was used.
My sister’s church, in an attempt to move away from its Episcopal diocese, has taken a unique approach.
First, let me say that they seem to be very Bible-oriented people who disagree with where the Episcopal church is headed and its unbiblical teachings, including liberal approaches towards homosexuality.
In short, they are paying no money to the diocese official church account. The diocese owns the building. Instead, they have set up another financial entity, and everyone donates to that.
These means that the dioceses is getting zero money from them, not even enough to maintain the building and pay the pastors and staff. So the money the disocese is spend on the building and staff is draining the regional fund, even crippling it.
The church uses the private fund to pay for ministries, etc. They have plenty of money to do the things they have to do.
The diocese may become so desperate that they must sell the building. Guess who will buy it? And if not, the local body has enough money to build their own church if they must move.
This is a good model to use in your local churches if you have a denominational connection that is corrupt (theirs is highly infected).
We lost a few members when Jefforts-Schori was elected PB, but mostly we recognize that the problems that afflict the rest of the church aren't going to happen here in the foreseeable future.
But the TEC's apparent willful determination to destroy itself is very disturbing.