Last month, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that the Anglican congregation at St. Luke’s on Foothill Boulevard would have to vacate by Oct. 12 so the property’s legal owner, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, could move in the next day.
The judge had pushed the move date to Oct. 12 to allow the Anglican congregation time to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court would agree to review the similar property rights case involving the St. James Anglican Church, which it refused to do Monday.
That means the La Crescenta congregation will likely have to turn elsewhere for its meetings and services, like the Glendale Seventh Day Adventist Church on Vallejo Drive, which has offered to host the congregation and its church-related events.
Church officials Monday did not return calls seeking comment, but John Shiner, an attorney for the Episcopal Diocese, confirmed that the congregation’s time at its current location had come to an end.
“We look forward to an orderly and peaceful transition to the property on or before Oct. 12,” Shiner said.
After voting to side with the Anglican Church, the congregation did not vacate the property, prompting the Episcopal Diocese to sue, arguing that it owned the historic St. Luke’s site based on a 1979 ruling establishing the diocese’s rights to all parish property.
The diocese won the lawsuit and subsequent appeals, but the grounds for the rulings could have been thrown into doubt had the High Court opted to hear the St. James case, officials said.
Although the congregation will have to move on, the battle between the diocese and St. James Anglican Church remains before a California appellate court judge.
The diocese will ask that a trial court be required to force the St. James congregation from a Newport Beach property.
That group had also broken from the diocese, but St. James attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the grounds for the California ruling granting religious groups the rights to parish property were unconstitutional.
St. James officials took the High Court’s refusal to hear the case in stride, hoping to win their ongoing fight in California courts.
“Our battle is far from over,” the Rev. Richard Crocker, St. James’ senior pastor, said in a statement. “We look forward to having the trial court rule on a written promise from the Episcopal Church in 1991 that they would never lay claim on our property.”
Daniel Friedman Lula, an attorney for St. Luke’s, could not be reached for comment.
ZAIN SHAUK covers business and politics. He may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at zain.shauk@latimes.com.
