COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado has added a request for monetary damages in its legal dispute with a breakaway parish over church assets.
The dispute stems from a vote in March by leaders of Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church to leave the Episcopal church and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Afterward, the breakaway parish asked an El Paso County District Court judge to declare that the diocese doesn’t own the historic church and its property.
The diocese then filed a counterclaim, contending Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church property still belongs to the diocese. The diocese said the breakaway parish is wrongfully occupying the property and accuses it of theft, trespass and conspiracy.
The secession vote in March came after the diocese placed the church’s rector, Don Armstrong, on leave as it investigated allegations of financial misconduct. Armstrong was defrocked Nov. 1 after an ecclesiastical court found him guilty.
Armstrong has denied wrongdoing.
In a motion filed Friday, the diocese asks a judge for permission to include Armstrong and other leaders of the breakaway parish as defendants in its counterclaim, as well as to seek unspecified monetary damages.
