Property ought to go where it can be best used

As some hard-line traditionalists try to take their parishes and dioceses out of the Episcopal Church (TEC), property disputes will come to the fore, and even more litigation is likely to arise than we already have.

The Christian way to approach these disputes is to work to allocate the property approximately in proportion to how much good the different factions can do with it.

Suppose my extremely-traditionalist parish, St. John the Divine Houston (SJD), were to vote overwhelmingly to secede from TEC, as part of a broad effort to take the Diocese of Texas out of the church.

• It wouldn't make sense for a tiny, vestigial loyalist congregation at SJD to remain the owner of a huge physical plant that it couldn't really put to good use. Nor would the loyalists likely be able to afford the maintenance.

• On the other hand, neither would it make sense for SJD's departing traditionalists to have to meet in school cafeterias while they built a new physical plant.

Neither of these possibilities would be good stewardship of resources, nor of all of our time. (Although meeting in school cafeterias and other rented space has some distinct advantages in terms of morale and team-building.)

It ought to be possible to work out guidelines for equitable, good-faith asset allocations if and when that becomes necessary. We can probably look to the secular business world for examples of how to do this.

Buy-sell agreements come to mind. Typically these are just variations on the old kid's rule for cutting a piece of cake in two, in which you cut but I choose:

• Alice and Bob are business partners in a company that has 100 shares of stock. Alice owns 60 shares, Bob owns 40 shares.
• Alice and Bob don't get along any more. Alice wants Bob out.
• Alice names a price per share that she will pay for Bob's 40 shares.
• Bob gets to decide whether he will:
• sell his 40 shares to Alice at the price she offered, or
• turn the tables and force Alice to sell her 60 shares to him at the same price per share that she offered him. (This possibility encourages Alice to name a fair price.)

There are doubtless other ways to approach the problem. The goal, for all concerned, should be to get everyone back to work, bringing people to God, as quickly as possible.

Comments

[bls]

On the other hand, neither would it make sense for SJD's departing traditionalists to have to meet in school cafeterias while they built a new physical plant.

I don't see why not. The way costs are for maintaining old buildings we'd be doing them a favor.

I think we should meet in school cafeterias, too, actually. I think the Church should sell all its properties and give the money to the poor, and start again at the bottom. Doing things the way we do them now is nothing but a huge waste of resources.