“No one should be insensitive to the feelings of those who are disappointed that our church will not be returning to Kings River Road, and no one should put a damper on the enthusiasm and spirit of those who now see us free to finally pursue our Gospel ministries, free of litigation and uncertainty.”

Breakaway members of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Waccamaw in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and those who wished to remain in the Episcopal Church have negotiated an end to what had been one of the Episcopal Church’s longest-running property disputes.

The members of the parish who remained members of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina were a minority of the congregation. They petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a September 2009 state Supreme Court ruling that overturned a lower court decision in favor of them. The Episcopal Church filed a brief on March 12 asking the court to “summarily reverse” the decision of the Supreme Court of South Carolina without a full review of the lower court’s ruling.”

The high court had been asked to review a Sept. 19 opinion in which South Carolina Supreme Court said that the majority of the parish members were entitled to retain the parish’s property after they left the Episcopal Church and the diocese in 2003 to affiliate with the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA). The state supreme court’s opinion arose from two different lawsuits, the earliest filed in 2000, over the issue of who owns the All Saints 50-acre campus that is also home to the AMiA.