Bennison v. Sharp
| Decision Date | 16 February 1983 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 58097 |
| Citation | 329 N.W.2d 466,121 Mich.App. 705 |
| Parties | Charles E. BENNISON, as Episcopal Bishop of Western Michigan; and Curtis J. Jones, and Roger R. Henry, as Wardens of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Grand Rapids, Plaintiffs- A v. James R. SHARP, Russell V. Brown, Jr., Earle A. Slenker, William D. Miller, and St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church of Grand Rapids, a Michigan ecclesiastical corporation, Defendants- A and St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Grand Rapids, a Michigan Ecclesiastical corporation, Defendant. 121 Mich.App. 705, 329 N.W.2d 466 |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
[121 MICHAPP 709] Law, Weathers & Richardson by Niel A. Weathers and Kevin B. Krauss, Grand Rapids, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Hess & Loeks, P.C. by Daniel B. Hess and Susan A. Andrews, Grand Rapids, for defendant.
Before WALSH, P.J., and WAHLS and McDONALD, * JJ.
This is a church property dispute which arose when a majority of the members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Grand Rapids seceded from the general church with which St. Paul's is affiliated, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), formed St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church and affiliated with the Anglican Catholic Church.
Plaintiff Bennison, Bishop of the Diocese of Western Michigan of PECUSA, and plaintiffs Jones and Henry, Wardens of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, commenced this action on May 13, 1980, seeking to enjoin defendants from transferring church properties belonging to St. Paul's Episcopal Church to St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church. Defendants, members of the seceding majority, appeal as of right from the trial court's order of summary judgment under GCR 1963, 117.2(3), enjoining defendants from conveying the real and personal property in question and declaring plaintiffs to be entitled to possession and control of such property.
The following facts are not in dispute. St. Paul's Episcopal Church is an ecclesiastical corporation organized in 1871 and incorporated in 1901 under 1899 P.A. 40, M.C.L. Sec. 458.251 et seq.; M.S.A. Sec. 21.1851 et seq., an act providing for the incorporation of Protestant Episcopal Churches. The legal title of [121 MICHAPP 710] the property in dispute, which includes a church, parish house and rectory, acquired in 1959, is in the name of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
PECUSA, organized in 1789, was the product of secession of the Anglican church in the colonies from the Church of England. PECUSA, an unincorporated association, is governed by a general convention and a bishop. Affiliated with it are numerous diocese, each of which is governed by a diocesan convention and a bishop. A diocese operates missions and admits parish churches to membership in the diocese and PECUSA. Parishes are represented by their clergy and elected lay representatives in the Conventions of the Diocese in which they are located. Dioceses are represented in the General Convention by their Bishops and by elected clergy and lay representatives.
PECUSA and the Diocese of Western Michigan, with which St. Paul's Episcopal Church is affiliated, have each promulgated canons and a constitution governing church policy and church financial and spiritual matters. In 1976, the General Convention of PECUSA amended its canons to institute various doctrinal changes within the church. Defendant James R. Sharp, who had become Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in 1976, and a majority of the members of St. Paul's were opposed to the changes.
At a meeting of the membership of St. Paul's on December 2, 1979, a majority present voted to delete from the parish bylaws all reference to the Protestant Episcopal Church and to the diocese constitution and canons, with the intent of seceding from the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Western Michigan. From that date all communication between the two factions ceased; the parish report was not filed on February 1, 1980, as required[121 MICHAPP 711] by the canons, and monthly payments of assessments of the Diocese ceased.
The Bishop of the Diocese inhibited Sharp on December 10, 1979, thereby suspending him from performing as an Episcopal priest for six months. A substitute priest, sent by the bishop on December 16, 1979, to conduct services at St. Paul's, was denied admission by defendants. The minority members of the church began meeting for worship at a temporary location.
On January 7, 1980, at the call of the Bishop, the minority members held an annual parish meeting and elected plaintiffs Jones and Henry vestrymen and wardens of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
On May 11, 1980, at a special parish meeting held by defendants and the seceding majority, a resolution was adopted to disaffiliate with the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan and to affiliate with the Anglican Catholic Church. A new ecclesiastical corporation was formed by the majority under M.C.L. Sec. 450.178; M.S.A. Sec. 21.179, in affiliation with the Anglican Catholic Church, under the name of St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church of Grand Rapids. Defendants Brown, Slenker and Miller, who had been acting as Senior and Junior Wardens and Secretary, respectively, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, until May 11, 1980, thereafter acted for St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church.
On May 11, 1980, new deeds were executed conveying the subject property to the new corporation. Recordation was enjoined by the trial court pending final disposition of the case. St. Paul's Episcopal Church continues to exist as an ecclesiastical corporation.
On September 16, 1980, the status of plaintiffs Jones and Henry as vestrymen and wardens was [121 MICHAPP 712] considered by the Bishop and the Executive Counsel of the Diocese of Western Michigan. Jones and Henry were determined to be the lawful representatives of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. By resolution the individual defendants and seceding vestrymen were declared not to be the valid and lawful officers and vestrymen of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. At the Annual Convention of the Diocese held in October, 1980, St. Paul's Episcopal Church was represented by delegates chosen by the vestry and were officially seated after approval of their credentials.
Defendants on appeal claim 1) genuine issues of fact exist so that summary judgment pursuant to GCR 1963, 117.2(3) was improper, 2) the trial court applied an improper legal standard in determining ownership of the property, 3) in resolving the dispute the trial court unconstitutionally interfered in ecclesiastical matters, and 4) the statutes regarding incorporation of Protestant Episcopal Churches is unconstitutional in that it impermissibly entangles the state in religious polity.
Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution of 1963 and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution protect freedom of religion by forbidding governmental establishment of religion and by prohibiting governmental interference with the free exercise of religion. Without question civil courts have general authority to resolve disputes over the ownership of church property. "The State has an obvious and legitimate interest in the peaceful resolution of property disputes, and in providing a civil forum where the ownership of church property can be determined conclusively." Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595, 602, 99 S.Ct. 3020, 3024, 61 L.Ed.2d 775 (1979).
The First Amendment, however, "severely circumscribes[121 MICHAPP 713] the role that civil courts may play in resolving church property disputes" by prohibiting civil courts from resolving church property disputes on the basis of religious doctrine and practice and requiring that courts defer to the resolution of issues of religious doctrine or polity by the highest court of a hierachical church organization. Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 602, 99 S.Ct. 3024. Subject to these limitations, however, the Supreme Court has held that the States are not constitutionally required by the First Amendment to follow a particular method of resolving church property disputes. "Indeed 'a State may adopt any one of various approaches for settling church property disputes so long as it involves no consideration of doctrinal matters, whether the ritual and liturgy of worship or the tenets of faith.' " Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 602, 99 S.Ct. 3024, quoting Maryland & Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg, Inc., 396 U.S. 367, 368, 90 S.Ct. 499, 500, 24 L.Ed.2d 582 (1970) (Brennan, J., concurring) (emphasis in original).
The United States Supreme Court has expressly approved of two methods by which civil courts may be guided in deciding church property disputes: 1) the polity or hierarchical theory; and 2) the neutral principles of law theory. The polity theory was set forth and approved in Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 679, 20 L.Ed. 666 (1872), in which the Court also repudiated the "departure-from-doctrine theory".
In Watson, the Court classified questions concerning the rights to property held by religious bodies under three general headings: 1) property which has been, "by * * * deed * * *, or other instrument by which the property is held, by express terms of the instrument devoted to the [121 MICHAPP 714] teaching, support or spread of some specific form of religious doctrine or belief"; 2) property held by a religious congregation "which, by the nature of its organization, is strictly independent of other ecclesiastical associations, and so far as church government is concerned, owes no fealty or obligation to any higher authority"; and 3) property held by a religious congregation or ecclesiastical body which "is but a subordinate member of some general church organization in which there are superior ecclesiastical tribunals with a general and ultimate power of control more or less complete in some supreme judicatory over the whole membership of that general...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Bishop and Diocese of Colorado v. Mote, 83SC104
... ... v. Parekh, 383 Mass. 854, 422 N.E.2d 1337, 1340-42 (1981) (polity); Bennison v. Sharp, 121 Mich.App. 705, 329 N.W.2d 466, 474 (1982) (polity); Piletich v. Deretich, 328 N.W.2d 696, 701-02 (Minn.1982) (neutral principles); ... ...
-
Episcopal Church v. Salazar
... ... See Episcopal Diocese , 422 S.W.3d at 647 ; Bennison v. Sharp , 121 Mich.App. 705, 329 N.W.2d 466, 468 (1982) ; Hon. John E. Fennelly, Property Disputes and Religious Schisms: Who is the Church? , 9 ... ...
-
Dixon v. Edwards
... ... Walker, Jr., Right Reverend, Bishop of the Diocese of Long Island; Charles E. Bennison, Jr., Right Reverend, Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania; William E. Swing, Right Reverend, Bishop of the Diocese of California; J. Jon Bruno, ... Protestant Episcopal Church, 759 S.W.2d 583, 586 (Ky.1988) ("In this case the church organization is hierarchical."); Bennison v. Sharp, 329 N.W.2d 466, 472 (Mich. 1983) ("[T]he undisputed facts show the Protestant Episcopal Church to be hierarchical with regard to property, as well ... ...
-
In re Episcopal Church Cases
... ... 722, 797 N.E.2d 916 (relying on Canon I.7.4 and the fact the local church had agreed to accede to the general church's canons); Bennison v. Sharp (1983) 121 Mich.App. 705, 329 N.W.2d 466; Protestant Episc. Church, etc. v. Graves (1980) 83 N.J. 572, 417 A.2d 19; The Diocese v ... ...
-
Religious Disputation and the Civil Courts: Quasi-Establishment and Secular Principles
...Episcopal Diocese, Nev., 610 P. 2d 182 (1980); Diocese of Newark v. Burns, N.J., 417 A. 2d 31 (1980); Bennison v. Sharp, Mich., 329 N.W. 2d 466(1982); Southside Tabernacle v. Pentecostal Church of God, Wash., 650 P. 2d 231(1982); the Supreme Court of South Dakota rejected the old Watson rul......