Received via email from Steve Johnson, 4.19.2008.

Here’s a great story about the parishioners of a small, rural Kansas, Ohio, church, which was closed by the bishop of Toledo, who are fighting the good fight in the courts of the State of Ohio to exert parishioner ownership rights. A favorable ruling for the St. James parish community could have far reaching legal ramifications in Ohio and eventually throughout the country.

If the plight of these parishioners resonates with you, consider joining me in donating to their cause.

The people of St. James parish are holding a drive to raise $50,000 in 10 days. If you feel moved to help, please go to www.stjameskansas.org , fill out the form on the home page, and make a pledge.

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The St. James Parish (Kansas, Ohio) Story:

On the evening of April 21^st, 2005, St. James was still what it had always been; busy, thriving, active, engaged, humble, unassuming, duty bound, cared for, and very much needed. It was everything that a parish needs to be in order to be strong, and to be an asset to the Toledo Diocese and its bishop, Leonard Paul Blair. But it was much more than that. It was also everything that a community needs a parish to be, in order to live. And it had just been given a death sentence.

St James knew what a mistake it would be to close this vibrant and thriving parish. On this evening, parishioners determined to be a church community, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. For every hour of every day, someone would be in the parish, praying to Mary with a rosary made from the lumber of the old cross atop the bell tower to spare our church from closure. What began that evening was a journey together that has deepened our faith, enriched our community, and broadened our view of the body of Christ, and the role that we all play in it. The final Mass took place on June 26th, 2005. The following Sunday, a weekly tradition that is upheld to this day began when the St. James community gathered for a prayer service.

Fast forward to January, 2006. Since May 1^st of the previous year, a parishioner had been inside St. James praying for the church to be saved. A group of St. James parishioners were sitting in a conference room in the diocesan offices on Spielbusch Ave in Toledo, to make our case to Bishop Blair. Both parties wanted a resolution to this matter, but our attempts to foster the dialogue so desperately needed were met with talking points.

“Bishop, if you want us to move on, would you mind telling us which locations will be closed in the near future; because we don’t care to go through this ever again.”

“Neither do I” he replied. “This has been very difficult for me,” he continued and went on to chastise us for “clinging to something that doesn’t exist.” Needless to say, this meeting ended in a stalemate.

On Monday, March 6^th, 2006; the gloves came off…literally. The bishop was out of town that week, and the diocese hired a new employee that morning. A woman who was quietly engaged in prayer didn’t think much of it when she heard the doors to the sanctuary open behind her. People did come and go periodically throughout the day. But this person wasn’t here to relieve her at the end of her shift, he was here to relieve us all for good.

“YOU HAVE TO LEAVE, NOW” he said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she replied.

He regarded her dismissively while he stomped over to where the votive candles were lit by fellow vigil participants, and obnoxiously blew them out. Now she knew something was definitely wrong.

“You are NOT supposed to do that in a church!”

She went to a stand up front where there was a phone. He proceeded toward her quickly, and pulled the plug from the wall. Now she was frightened for her safety. What kind of a person comes in to a church and does this? She wasn’t going to find out what he would do next. With that, the doors were barred, and “Private Property” signs were placed intermittently around the church and parish house exterior. After 10 months and 5 days, the prayer vigil had ended.

Bishop Blair thought the St. James community would roll over and go away quietly when faced with bully tactics like this. He doesn’t know this parish very well, and the community resolved that we should help him to become better acquainted. With some legal assistance, the parish discovered that there was a strong argument to be made in court that the St. James community still owned the parish property. One of the legal briefs filed on behalf of St. James reads as follows:

In the case at bar, the parish of Kansas St. James held the beneficial interest in the property until it was abolished by Defendants. Then, the beneficial interests went to the Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have not and do not challenge the Bishop’s right to create and abolish parishes. But to suggest that the Bishop holds property in trust – but for a body of beneficiaries that he can create or abolish at will – flies in the face of Ohio law. Defendants’ argument is no different than suggesting that a large bank trustee serving many different trusts can allocate assets from one beneficiary to another at any time. The beneficial interest in the trust holding the property of Kansas St. James belongs to the Plaintiffs and those who would associate with them in worship, not to the Defendants. Plaintiffs seek nothing more than a trustee who will afford them the beneficial interest in the church property that they are entitled to.

On this premise, St. James filed suit in the Seneca County Court of Common Pleas. On March 31^st, 2008, St. James motion for summary judgment was denied in this case, but there are arguments that need to flushed out before we can close the book on this story; and we need your help to mount an appeal.

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Fundraiser day 7:

Our fundraiser was featured in the following Toledo Blade article. To date, $7,690 has been pledged. 3 days remain and it is now time to pull out all of the stops.

This is a vitally important principle that St. James is fighting for. Imagine if the trustee of a large bank decreed your accounts to be closed and the assets contained within them distributed to other peoples’ accounts however this trustee sees fit. That would not be tolerated, but that is essentially how parish closings were handled in the Toledo Diocese in 2005. If it were anybody but a bishop doing this, people would not stand for it. Another interesting thing to note about this is that bishops tend to define this issue differently depending on the situation. In the Portland Oregon Archdiocese, Archbishop Vlazny just signed the parish property deeds over to the parishes. Each parish there will be reorganized into a nonprofit corporation.

St. James became involved in this legal battle because the folks here feel very strongly that they are the owners of the parish. There are sound legal arguments that bishops are trustees who must administer the property for the benefit of local parishioners. But to the folks here, it goes much deeper than legal speak. They have ancestors who played a big part in creating the parish; people who contributed their life’s work to building it up and improving it during the time they were there, and they passed that tradition down through several generations of their family history. There is an alter inside the building now that was built by a family who lives in this community. When wheelchair access was needed, it was not a diocesan contractor who did the work, it was the folks who lived here that rolled up their sleeves and built it. These are things that were contributed by this community for all who are or wish to be a part of this community. What the diocese wants to do with these things does not align with the spirit of how they came into existence.

Up until this point the parishioners have shouldered the bulk of the financial burden for this, spending roughly $80,000 of their own hard earned money to seek justice for all parishes like St. James. In addition to this, St. James also bore the burden of paying for the legal defense of the diocese in the amount of $44,990; which the Toledo Diocese withdrew from the St. James diocesan account to pay the firm of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick for their defense. Click to read: toledoblade.com — Use of funds irks former parishioners

St. James is offering parishioners around the country an opportunity to take ownership of this case as it can benefit them as well. Without this investment, it is unlikely that St. James can bear the financial burden of taking this as far as it will need to go. There is still a window of opportunity to act.

The people of St. James parish are holding a drive to raise $50,000 in 10 days. If you feel moved to help, please go to www.stjameskansas.org , fill out the form on the home page, and make a pledge.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 1:53 am and is filed under Church Culture, Finances and Ownership, Must Read, Reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.