BANKRUPTCY COURT ISSUES ORDERS FAVORING ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 29 OCTOBER 2021

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Ft. Worth, issued four orders today, October 29, 2021, all favoring All Saints Episcopal Church, a 1,500-member congregation that remained in the Episcopal Church. After the Texas Supreme Court ruled entirely in favor of the breakaway entity in the schism of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert, the victorious association (going under the name of the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth, even though it has no connection to the Episcopal Church) moved to seize the property and assets of All Saints parish. On Oct. 26, the church went to the bankruptcy court for relief. The major problem for the local church was that the secessionist entity had gone after the parish's bank accounts and the bank had frozen them leaving parish officials unable to access the parish funds and pay bills.

Today, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court at Ft. Worth issued four orders, all favorable to All Saints. Find them listed here . 

---the most important order authorized All Saints to maintain the existing bank accounts.

---order granting the paying of wages.

---order prohibiting utilities from disrupting services.

---order setting another hearing for November 16, 2021, 1:30 p.m.

The Court cannot forestall the schismatic diocese from seizing all the property and assets of the parish (as of the start of the litigation), but it can ease the transition in favor of the loyalist parish that has to surrender its property and it can force the victorious secessionist diocese to back off its scorched earth tactics.