March 12, 1998 | Read Time: 1 minute
Two bishops of the Episcopal Church have filed a lawsuit on behalf of their New Jersey dioceses, charging a conservative splinter group of the denomination with trademark infringement, unfair competition, and misrepresentation.
The suit asks a federal court to prohibit the conservative group from using the church’s historical name, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The conservatives — disgruntled over what they see as a movement by the church away from the denomination’s orthodox teachings — announced in December the formation of a new non-profit organization that uses the historical name.
The New Jersey lawsuit argues that the conservative group’s use of the name was “designed specifically to trade upon the enormous goodwill associated with” the Episcopal Church. It says that the use of the name will cause — and has probably already caused — confusion among donors who might believe that they are contributing to the larger church body when they are not.
The charges were brought by Bishop John Shelby Spong, of Newark, N.J., and Bishop Joe M. Doss, of the diocese of New Jersey.
Bishop William C. Wantland, of Eau Claire, Wis., a founder of the conservative group, said that the lawsuit had “no real justification.” He added that “nothing has been done in any way illegal.”
A spokesman for the national denomination said that the church’s leader, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold III, had declined to comment on the suit except to say that it was not the course of action he would have chosen. The spokesman said that Bishop Griswold planned to meet soon with the leaders of the conservative group.
