Parish Weighs Order to Surrender its Church
October 9, 2012 7 Comments
Sad news for the people of St Barnabas in Omaha:
An Omaha congregation that left the Episcopal Church over issues of doctrine and homosexuality now faces a tough decision about its midtown church: Should congregants stay or should they go?
A judge ruled last week that the people of St. Barnabas Church must surrender the 97-year-old church building, with all its artwork and other trappings, plus its rectory and other property to the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska.
The ruling by Douglas County District Court Judge Joseph Troia came more than three years after the diocese sued St. Barnabas’ priest and leaders for the church and rectory at 129 N. 40th St. It is one of many such property disputes around the nation between the Episcopal Church and disaffected congregations.
The judge’s order gives the St. Barnabas congregation, which is moving toward joining the Roman Catholic Church, until late October to hand over the keys. But the diocese’s lawyer, D.C. “Woody” Bradford, said it won’t push to enforce that deadline.
People on both sides said they hope for negotiations that could lead to the congregation’s staying in its current home, though not as an Episcopal church. St. Barnabas leaders also are considering an appeal.
“What we’re hoping is that now that they have won the lawsuit they’ll be more willing to sit down with us and talk about what’s real,” said the Rev. Robert Scheiblhofer, rector of St. Barnabas.
Bradford said Nebraska Episcopal Bishop J. Scott Barker “wants to resolve it as amicably as possible, without any hindrance of their desire to become a Catholic Church. … I’m sure we’ll come together and work something out.”
St. Barnabas is one of dozens of Episcopal parishes around the nation whose members have chosen to leave the Episcopal Church. They have done so for a variety of reasons, most having to do with their parishioners’ and clergy’s beliefs that the U.S. church has drifted from traditional Anglican faith.
Long known for tolerating a wide variety of theological views, the Episcopal Church has struggled in recent years over issues that confront other denominations as well, including the ordination of women and of openly gay clergy…
Officials of the Nebraska Episcopal Diocese have said that St. Barnabas members were free to leave the denomination, with church leaders’ blessings, but that they could not continue to use their buildings…
They also are considering other options, including moving out and finding a different church building…
HT: Michael Frost (in via e-mail).
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Property issues preventing communities from following the path they have chosen; how familiar… Let’s hope and pray it will not result in total decomposition of a Christian community like in case of the hard-hit congregation of St Mary of the Angels. What is a building without people after all.
In Texas, in somewhat similar circumstances, St Timothy’s was prevented from worshipping in their church by TEC litigants (in a case against secessionist Fort Worth diocese), as according to them joining the Ordinariate would constitute a change in use (i.e. status quo). However, they made a brave decision to discontinue to use their church and joined the Ordinariate anyway.
At least they don’t have a “Fr. Kelley” counterpart.
True enough, though I take no comfort that we in Los Angeles are losing our church to ACA rather than TEC.
Since Omaha is the site of TEC’s interfaith worship with Judaism and Islam maybe it is not to big a jump for them to allow Catholic worship in one of their buildings.
It’s the rich young man parable all over agian. What I don’t like claim that th Hloy Spirit lies behind all this , are the calculating clergy.
Also I notice that this community has a real devotion to King Charles the first.When they become ,that will be right out of the window. Charles the first was no martyr, and when imprisoned by parliament was secretly negotiating with the Presbyterian Scots.You see the Anglican patrimony is so wonderful, it gets no representation in Saints days!
Virtually all the UK Ordinariate Groups had the same unhappy experience because CofE Churches have a special legal status which makes them inalienable.
It seems to me that:-
(i) this is a marvellous opportunity for the Catholic Diocesan and a local parish to lend a welcoming hand;
(ii) it might help the US St Barnabas Group to be in contact with a UK Group which has been through the same experiemce.
As it happens, the Tunbridge Wells Ordinariate Group was founded by people whopreviously worshipped in a CofE Church dedicated to St Barnabas.
This might not work out as badly as it sounds as I think that the Episcopal diocese has less hang-ups about St Barnabas’s congregation negotiating continued use of the property as a Catholic Ordinariate congregation than as a ‘Continuing Anglican’ one. Here’s hoping.