A California appellate court has sided with the Diocese of San Diego, reversing a lower court decision which found no valid basis for Bishop James Mathes’ removal and replacement of the board of directors of St. John’s Anglican Church, Fallbrook.
 
In July 2006, the vestry and rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church voted to leave The Episcopal Church and to call for a parish vote three days later. At that meeting the congregation voted 71-13 in favor of disaffiliation. The majority of the congregation subsequently affiliated with the Anglican Church of Uganda and continues to worship in the church building.
 
Claiming that the vestry and clergy had disqualified themselves from parish leadership when they voted to leave The Episcopal Church, Bishop Mathes appointed new vestry and clergy leaders at St. John’s and sued for control of the church property. The Episcopal congregation has been holding Sunday services at the Fallbrook Community Center since 2006. A lower court found in favor of the Anglican congregation in November 2006. The appellate court ordered the lower court to reverse its previous ruling on Oct. 21.
 
“We must defer to the Episcopal Church’s decision on this ecclesiastical matter, even if it incidentally affected control over church property,” the three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal said in its opinion. “The constitution of the San Diego Diocese confers authority on Bishop Mathes to resolve the dispute between the dissident and loyalist members of St. Johns’ parish. Moreover, under the San Diego Diocese’s constitution, in order for a member of a parish to be a member of the vestry, and thereby a director of the parish corporation, he or she must be a member in good standing in The Episcopal Church. Once the defendants renounced their membership in The Episcopal Church, they could no longer serve as members of the vestry and directors of the parish corporation.”
 
Eric Sohlgren, the lawyer retained by the congregation of St. John’s Anglican Church, said the California Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion within the next month in another case involving a California congregation where the majority voted to leave The Episcopal Church and refused pleas from the diocesan bishop to vacate the property. Mr. Sohlgren is also representing that congregation, St. James’, Newport Beach.
 
“We are surprised that the Court of Appeal would have issued a ruling now, knowing that the California Supreme Court is about to issue a ruling in the related St. James’, Newport Beach case,” he said. “The court claimed to be following neutral principles of law, but then deferred to the bishop’s decisions about whether the corporate board of St. John’s had been replaced. The Court of Appeal’s decision will not return to the trial court for further proceedings for at least 60 days, during which time St. John’s will be seriously considering an appeal to the California Supreme Court.”
 
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