The Rev. Christopher P. Leighton, the fourth rector of St. Paul's, and a charismatic, who joined the parish in 1998 told VOL that the bishop's solution to broker in Bishop Love was his decision, not theirs.

"Bishop Douglas presented deadlines and offered things to us we are not seeking. His solution is to broker in Bill Love to us. We are a Bible believing Episcopal Church and this makes us very uncomfortable. In fact we have been discomfortable first under Bishop Andrew Smith and now under Douglas."

"Our parish bears witness to Jesus Christ in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Douglas wants us to be in full communion with him and demands that we sit in the councils of the diocese send representatives to various committees, be seated in all meetings and that we pay our voluntary offering to the diocese. We have refused to send them a penny since 2003 when Gene Robinson was consecrated the church's first homosexual bishop and they broke with Holy Scripture.

"Fundamentally we believe that the diocese has left the Anglican Communion and it has walked apart WE are the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion, not the diocese or TEC," Said Leighton.

St. Paul's gained national and international notice in 1972 when the Rev. Everett L. (Terry) Fullam became rector and opened the parish to the Charismatic movement stressing apostolic teaching, joy and awe in worship, charismatic gifts and experiences, and scriptural preaching. The parish argued that Jesus is the head of the church and that everyone is called to be a minister - equipping and mobilizing the laity.

St. Paul's rode the crest of the charismatic renewal. Fullam and St. Paul's laity mobilized weekend conferences for visiting laity and clergy to teach Biblical principles with teams travelling to other churches to vestry retreats, conferences, and seminars. In 1979 Miracle In Darien was published. The book told the story of the call of Terry Fullam as leader of this charismatic renewal and how it played out in the parish and beyond. The book became the "manual" for other church boards and vestries. By 1980 attendance peaked at 1,300 in all services.

The filing in the Superior Court specifically seeks to know the details of the purported theocratic trust, in particular the identity of its beneficiaries, and whether it may be enforced since it is a violation of the doctrine of separation of church and state. The legal issue to be determined is whether a civil court should regard a religious document as taking precedence over a parish's legal deed when a theological dispute arises.

The issue brings into play the neutrality of the legal system in church matters, as well as the rights of parishioners as citizens, to determine their own course without government interference. The Parish contends that a theocratic trust cannot be enforced because to do so would violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article Seventh of the Connecticut Constitution.

"St. Paul's, for its part, takes the position that it remains an "Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion" as it has for 53 years. The Parish's legal request comes in the context of a worldwide dispute, in which most Anglicans and many Episcopalians in Communion with them, including St. Paul's Parish, have affirmed themselves to be in sharp and basic disagreement with the American Episcopal Church regarding issues of faith and morals. The divisions in the Communion are over the role of Christ in achieving salvation and recent actions which would compel acceptance of minority views on human sexuality and the use of churches for performing same sex marriages."

In a recent letter to St. Paul's, Bishop Douglas wrote that St. Paul's property is being held in trust by the Diocese and the national Church -- a reference to a church law known as the Dennis Canon. However, the General Convention of the American Episcopal Church did not adopt that canon until 1979.

The Parish seeks to stay focused on its historic mission. It still desires to work in good faith with Bishop Douglas and any visitor designated by the Archbishop of Canterbury to help effect an amicable resolution of the legal issues, said Leighton.

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