Opinion ID: 2505697
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Local and National Church Documents.

Text: The final neutral principle this Court has normally examined is the governing documents of the local and general churches. The neutral-principles method, at least as it has evolved in Georgia, requires a civil court to examine certain religious documents, such as a church constitution, for language of trust in favor of the general church. Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. at 604, 99 S.Ct. 3020 (emphasis added). See Carnes, 236 Ga. at 39, 222 S.E.2d 322 (explaining that `[a] local church . . . cannot . . . enter a binding relationship with a parent church which has provisions of implied trust in its constitution, by-laws, rules, and other documents pertaining to the control of property, yet deny the existence of such relationship' (citation omitted)). Like other courts, see, e.g., Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. at 604, 99 S.Ct. 3020 (discussing the corporate charter of the local church and the constitution of the general church), this Court has examined, always in purely secular terms, the general and local church's governmental rules set forth in documents labeled in various ways. See, e.g., Timberridge, 290 Ga. at ___ - ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (examining the Articles of Incorporation of the local church corporation and the Book of Order of the parent church); Ga. District Council of Assemblies of God, Inc. v. Atlanta Faith Mem. Church, Inc., 267 Ga. 59, 60-61, 472 S.E.2d 66 (1996) (reviewing the bylaws of the general denomination); Crumbley, 243 Ga. at 343-344, 254 S.E.2d 330 (reviewing the Disciplinary Rules of the parent church); Jones v. Wolf, 241 Ga. 208, 211, 243 S.E.2d 860 (1978) (discussing documents of church government), vacated on other grounds, 443 U.S. at 609-610, 99 S.Ct. 3020; Carnes, 236 Ga. at 37 & n. 16, 222 S.E.2d 322 (reviewing the Book of Discipline of the parent church and noting that the corporate charter of the local church would have been relevant if the local church had one). [8] Indeed, because the relevant title instruments are often inconclusive and statutes may not be directly applicable, most of our church property cases have ultimately relied on such governing documents to resolve the dispute. See, e.g., Timberridge, ___ Ga. at ___ - ___, ___ S.E.2d ___; Crumbley, 243 Ga. at 345, 254 S.E.2d 330 (In recent years this court has looked consistently to the requirements of the church discipline in hierarchical denominations to avoid offending the prohibitions of the First Amendment.). But this should come as no surprise, given that our task is to discern the `the intentions of the parties' at the local and national level regarding beneficial ownership of the property at issue as expressed `before the dispute erupt(ed)' in a `legally cognizable form.' Timberridge, ___ Ga. at ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (quoting Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. at 603, 606, 99 S.Ct. 3020). One would expect those intentions to be revealed in the formal documents that memorialize the relationship between the local and general churches and their property-related rules, as well as the parties' course of conduct under those governing documents. In this case, it is most revealing (although unfortunately not most succinct) to review the local and general church documents as they were created, amended, and followed over the course of the quarter millennium that Christ Church interacted with a parent denomination before the dispute underlying this lawsuit arose. As the trial court and the Court of Appeals similarly concluded, our review demonstrates that Christ Church has submitted to the authority of the parent church for all of its existence except for the Revolutionary War and subsequent interregnum when Christ Church was actively seeking a new parent church. Moreover, the parent church has always had control over local church property, with that control becoming more and more explicit in the legally cognizable form of the Episcopal Church's governing canons, culminating in an express property trust provision (the Dennis Canon) in 1979, just after the Jones v. Wolf decision invited hierarchical churches to clarify property control with such a provision. See Kemp, 288 Ga. at 328, 704 S.E.2d 175 (plurality) (noting that legal commentators have observed that hierarchical churches, taking their cue from a concurrence in [a 1969 case] and instruction given by the United States Supreme Court in Jones v. Wolf , . . . amended church constitutions in the 1970s and 1980s to include a provision that local churches hold their property in trust for the use and benefit of the general church. (citations and footnote omitted)). Christ Church repeatedly pledged its unequivocal adherence to the discipline of the parent church, including when it organized the Georgia Diocese of the Episcopal Church in 1823 and in its formal corporate Articles of Amendment filed with the State of Georgia in 1918 and its Articles of Incorporation filed in 1981two years after the Dennis Canon was enacted. And the record shows that at all times during the 180 years before this dispute began, Christ Church acted consistently with the Episcopal Church's canons regarding its property, demonstrating the local church's understanding that it could not consecrate, alienate, or encumbermuch less leave withits property without the consent of the parent church. [9]