In Re Episcopal Church Cases

Goodwin Procter, David Booth Beers, Heather H. Anderson and Matthew J. Wilshire, for Intervener and Appellant.

Payne & Fears, Eric C. Sohlgren, Benjamin A. Nix and Daniel F. Lula, Irvine, for Defendants and Respondents.

Law Offices of George S. Burns, George S. Burns and John C. Ashby, Newport Beach, as Amici Curiae for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, and Presbytery of Hanmi on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

SILLS, P. J.

This appeal stems from a classic dispute over church property where a local congregation of a general church seeks to disaffiliate itself from that general church and take the local church property with it. (See generally Baker v. Ducker (1889) 79 Cal. 365 , 21 P. 764 (Baker) ; N.L. Wheelock v. First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles (1897) 119 Cal. 477 , 51 P. 841 (Wheelock) ; Horsman v. Allen (1900) 129 Cal. 131 , 61 P. 796 (Horsman) ; Committee of Missions v. Pacific Synod (1909) 157 Cal. 105 , 106 P. 395 (Committee of Missions ); see also Rosicrucian Fellowship v. Rosicrucian Fellowship Nonsectarian Church (1952) 39 Cal.2d 121 , 245 P.2d 481 (Rosicrucian Fellowship) ; Providence Baptist Church v.…