The old iron fist in the purple velvet glove...

I know the religious issues are contentious, but I'm sorry, it is hard to feel bad about the legal aspects.

If you stop working for the organization, you stop being able to participate in that organization's pension and insurance plans. (COBRA should give you 90s of elective coverage, but the fees are usually quite high. The few times I had to do this it was cheaper to get short-term health insurance on my own, until covered by my new employer's insurance plan... also usually 90 days.) The point is, did you expect them to go on funding the pensions/insurance of people who were no longer part of their organization? I would say that was naive. Whatever else they are, they are corporations (tax-free) with employees and responsibilities to see funds are spent accordingly. How would you feel if it came to light that the bishop (or whoever) was allowing their extended family or friends - who did not work there - to be covered under the health plan, incurring costs to the diocese as a whole? Most people would look at something like that as a scandal. Headlines like "Bishop diverts funds to special friends" would be appropriate.

Now either the diocese owns the property or the local parish does. I know the Catholic Church keeps ownership at the Archdiocese level - there was much in the Chicago press a few years back because parishes had to be closed for lack of funds in certain areas, and locals were "upset" they didn't have much say, due to not having any ownership rights.

Sounds like you guys are in a similar situation. If the diocese doesn't want to sell you are probably out-of-luck. And if they were willing to sell, would the funds be available for purchase? I know everyone "feels like it's their parish," but unfortunately that ain't always the way the law sees things.

If the diocese was willing to sell, would the world-wide organization, or that part of it which is trying to break away from the US "progressives," be willing to help come up with funds?

The objection isn't to the legal arrangement itself, it's to using the legal arrangement to try and bully the parishes on the theological matters. The ECUSA, under the new High Priestess, is not interested in reaching amicable arrangements with dissenting parishes, it's seeking to squash that dissent by every means possible.

In the end, if it becomes too expensive or litigious, individual congregations or members of congregations will simply pick up and leave, joining new congregations in school cafeterias and the like. Of course, the Diocese relies on fund-raising at the parish level to maintain its property, so driving these folks off is going to leave it with a bunch of big, expensive buildings and much less money with which to maintain them.

I suppose on some level it is fighting dirty...

Still if everyone pulled out, and the buildings were empty, they would probably be available for sale. Of course 100% of the parish won't pull out. Still some consolidation - as happened to the Catholics in Chicago - would happen, putting some churches up for sale.

If the members of the governing board are personally liable for actions by the parish, I would be heading for the exit - at least as far as that liability is concerned. But at least you are forewarned.

Is there any chance this is all going to get worked out in the near future, or is the whole thing sliding down a slope toward a cliff?

Did you email your rector back, and if so, what did you say?

And if not, do you want any suggestions?

Zendo - there are actually two dynamics going on right now. One is the schism within the ECUSA itself. The other is the status of the ECUSA's membership in the wider Anglican Communion.

As for the internal schism, the tensions have been there for a long time but have stewed along just beneath the surface. The new Presiding Bishop has brought them to the surface - now that the Radical Left is in charge, it is abandoning its diversity rhetoric and starting to demand adherence to the New Orthodoxy.

On the global front, the ECUSA is already on a kind of probation within the Communion. The next Lambeth Conference is in 2008, at which time its status will be reviewed again. I believe the ECUSA has provided more than enough rope to allow the conservative block of the Communion, made up primarily of African and Asia churches, to hang it.

The bottom line, IMHO, is that the ECUSA is not going to survive in its present form for very much longer. There will be a split and no amount of "move along, nothing to see here" rhetoric will change that. From what I can see, it appears that the liberal main will go off on its own while a conservative rump returns to the Anglican church in one way or another.

NBS - no, I haven't. Apparently, we're going to review the situation at the next vestry meeting.