Church board will appeal court's ruling

LA CRESCENTA — The governing body of St. Luke's of the Mountains Anglican Church voted unanimously on Monday to appeal a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruling that the La Crescenta church's property belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

A majority of St. Luke's congregants voted in February 2006 to split from the Los Angeles Diocese and Episcopal Church USA, citing theological differences with the larger church. The church, then St. Luke's of the Mountains Episcopal Church, joined the Anglican Province of Uganda, reaffirming its membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The diocese, in turn, sued St. Luke's, arguing that the church property is held in trust for the Episcopal Church.

"What's at stake is the church property of St. Luke's," said Debbie Kollgaard, St. Luke's senior warden. "It would mean that we would not be able to worship in that building anymore. We would be kicked out."

The St. Luke's vestry, a rotating governing committee of 12 congregants, contends that the church property — at 2563 Foothill Blvd. — and the 83-year-old church building itself belong to St. Luke's, Kollgaard said.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Shepard Wiley Jr. ruled against St. Luke's in 77-page decision on July 3, upholding the national church's claim that a 1979 canon — or church law — established its ownership of all Episcopal parish property in the country.

"The court found that the national church had passed a canon, which confirmed an understanding, which predated that canon, that all parish property was held in trust for the diocese and the national church," said Diocese Chancellor John Shiner, who is leading the case for the diocese.

St. Luke's was not alone when it broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, and it is not alone now in its legal battles with the Diocese. Three Orange County parishes — which split from the diocese in 2004, and are now under the jurisdiction of the same Uganda Anglican bishop that oversees St. Luke's — are embroiled in a similar legal skirmish.

Last week's decision came less than two weeks after an Orange County appeals court ruled in favor of the diocese in a property dispute with the three Orange County parishes.

All four parishes have cited the Episcopal Church's more liberal interpretation of the Bible as the reason for breaking away from the national church, Kollgaard said.