Fourteen Churches and a Camp: A Decade-Long Fight Over Who Owns South Carolina’s Episcopal Buildings

• South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered 14 former Episcopal congregations’ property returned to the Episcopal diocese
• The churches had left in 2012 to join the Anglican Church in North America
• The court found 15 other parishes had not created a trust and kept their real estate
• St Christopher Camp and Conference Center on Seabrook Island also went to the Episcopal diocese

After nearly a decade of litigation, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled in April 2022 that 14 churches that left The Episcopal Church in 2012 must return their property to the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, Episcopal News Service reported on April 20, 2022. The ruling also covered all real and personal property, including St Christopher Camp and Conference Center on Seabrook Island.

The congregations had departed to join the Anglican Church in North America. A 2014 lower court decision in their favour was largely overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2017, and the dispute continued until this ruling.

The court found that 14 of 29 named parishes had created “an irrevocable trust in favor of the National Church and its diocese”, while 15 parishes “did not create a trust in favor of the National Church or its diocese, and thus those 15 Parishes retain title to their real estate.” Questions about names and emblems had been dealt with in federal court, which ruled for The Episcopal Church in 2019.

Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley said: “Their decisions will no doubt bring joy to many in our diocese, but for others, there will be grief in the possible finality of a loss they have been feeling for nearly 10 years.”

The case turned on paperwork: whether each parish had, at some point, agreed to hold its property in trust for the wider church. That question matters in Jamaica too, where congregations regularly split, merge or leave denominations. Before a breakaway, members need to know whether the building belongs to the local congregation, the denomination or a trust, and what the deeds and constitutions say. As South Carolina shows, getting the answer wrong can mean years in court and the loss of a building a congregation has paid for over generations.

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