On June 27, 2008, the Circuit Court of Fairfax County declared constitutional—as applied to the case before it—a Virginia statute which gives ownership of church property to breakaway congregations of a church denomination, which for years had held the property in trust for the purpose of worship within the denomination, according to denominational doctrine. The statute, known as the “Division Statute,” was enacted by the Virginia legislature only a few years after the end of the Civil War, and was used then as a vehicle for seizing church property by local churches separating from their denominations, in an era of disputes within denominational churches over issues including pro-slavery and anti-slavery doctrinal positions.

The Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is very disappointed and deeply troubled by this decision of the Virginia Circuit Court.  We believe, as we argued in an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief to the Court, that the Virginia Division Statute is in direct violation of the First Amendment.  We believe that the Virginia state government—through its legislature and its courts—has unconstitutionally inserted itself into the polity and doctrine of the Episcopal Church, and entangled itself in the process of discernment and discipline of that church.

In the current case, a majority of the members of 11 congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia had voted to separate themselves from the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America ("Episcopal Church")—with whom the churches had been associated for decades, or in some cases for centuries—and to become member churches of  a different church, namely, the Anglican Church in Nigeria.  The Court had previously held that the Division Statute would allow these separating local congregations in Virginia to retain the church's property, thereby ignoring explicit language in the Canons of the Episcopal Church, which provides that all church property of any local congregation of the Episcopal Church in America shall be held in trust, for purposes of worship in the faith of the Episcopal Church.

The Virginia Annual Conference strongly believes that theological disagreements within any denomination should be resolved according to the polity and discipline of the denomination itself, and not by the Court's imposition of itself as arbiter of those disagreements, or by civil legislative mandate.  This is true especially where such intrusion by the state courts and legislature permits the Court effectively to nullify the doctrine and discipline of a religious denomination, under which churches have been acting in agreement for years. Such a role by the state government and secular courts is inappropriate, and offends the First Amendment principles of separation of church and state which have been central to the religious freedom of Americans since the founding of our nation.

As this case goes forward, we pray that the Courts of Virginia, and other courts throughout this country, will recognize and affirm these fundamental First Amendment principles, and refrain from intruding upon matters of church organization, faith and doctrine.

Charlene P. Kammerer
Resident Bishop
Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church

W. Clark Williams Jr.
Chancellor
Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church