US Supreme Court declines to hear parish property dispute

The US Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a dispute from the St. James Anglican Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles over who owns a California church and its property. St. James's was one parish that voted to split from the national church after the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire. California courts have ruled that, while St. James had the right to split off from the larger church, the congregation could not take parish property with it.