Court tentatively rules for L.A. parish.

As reported over at titusonenine and elsewhere, a judge has tentatively ruled that the breakaway St. James Church of Newport Beach may keep their property, not the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

Keep an eye on this case. It has implications not only for the Episcopal Church, but also for other breakaway church cases, particularly in California. One such case involves the large Korean First Presbyterian Church in Torrance, where the dispute has gotten nasty as documented by Layman.org (Look for “Brutal language used in disruption of service.”) with services being interrupted and worse.

This ruling combined with an earlier win for a breakaway California Methodist church could spell trouble for liberal denominations trying to keep the property of orthodox congregations.