Opinion ID: 2831308
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Improper Resolution of Ecclesiastical Issues

Text: In adopting the neutral-principles approach, the Court recognizes that “differences between ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical issues will not always be distinct” and that “deferring to decisions of ecclesiastical bodies in matters reserved to them by the First Amendment may, in some instances, effectively determine the property rights in question.” Id. at ___. Unlike the Court, however, I believe proper deference with respect to such matters determines the property rights at issue in this case. When deciding whether a matter invokes constitutional protection, I believe that we should err on the side of caution, upholding constitutional mandates when in doubt. The Court divides the questions of Good Shepherd parish’s authority to withdraw from TEC and Good Shepherd corporation’s authority to withdraw by amending its bylaws and articles of 6 incorporation. Id. at ___. In my view, however, the two inquiries are inextricably linked. The Court goes on to conclude that, because the parish at issue was incorporated and because there was no specific TEC or diocesan restriction on the corporation’s authority to amend its bylaws and articles of incorporation, the validity of Good Shepherd’s withdrawal by amendment of those documents was not an ecclesiastical question. See id. I am unconvinced that the incorporated status of the parish removes the issue from the realm of church polity. If Bishop Ohl’s determination that the parish could not withdraw from TEC is a binding ecclesiastical decision,2 it does not cease to be so because of the corporate form taken by the parish. Such a determination permits civil courts to conduct an end-run around the First Amendment’s prohibition against inquiry into and resolution of religious issues by effectively allowing the lower church entity’s unilateral decision to trump the higher entity’s authority over matters of church polity. Notably, the Court recognizes that “what happens to the relationship between a local congregation that is part of a hierarchical religious organization and the higher organization when members of the local congregation vote to disassociate is an ecclesiastical matter over which civil courts generally do not have jurisdiction.” Id. at ___ (citing Serbian E. Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696, 713–14 (1976)). “But what happens to the property is not,” the Court continues, “unless the congregation’s affairs have been ordered so that ecclesiastical decisions effectively determine the property issue.” Id. It follows that Bishop Ohl’s determination regarding the parish’s authority (or, more accurately, lack of authority) to withdraw from TEC is a binding 2 This determination is unrelated to the undisputed right of the individual members of any religious organization to withdraw their affiliation should they choose to do so. 7 ecclesiastical decision, irrespective of the corporate form taken by the parish. In turn, since Good Shepherd did not validly withdraw from TEC, Good Shepherd remained a constituent thereof and consequently remained subject to TEC’s and the Diocese’s Constitutions and Canons. There appears to be no dispute that, as a TEC parish, Good Shepherd could not pick and choose those portions of the governing documents by which it wished to be bound. And the Dennis Cannon and its diocesan counterpart expressly state that the church property is held in trust for TEC and the Diocese. Thus, if Good Shepherd had no authority to withdraw, it had no authority to revoke its adherence to the Canons or to revoke the trust placed on the property by virtue thereof. Moreover, the Canons condition Good Shepherd’s authority over the church property on its “remain[ing] a part of, and subject to, this Church and its Constitutions and Canons.” By purporting to withdraw from TEC, then, Good Shepherd took the very action that would strip it of its rights in the property. Good Shepherd may not avoid the consequences of its actions—consequences to which it had freely agreed—simply by voting to no longer be subject to those consequences.