The Maryland Supreme Court has ruled that a former bishop of an Eritrea-based Orthodox denomination cannot remain at a church-owned residence where he has lived for more than a decade.
The state’s high court issued its decision July 23 in the case of Eritrean Orthodox Tweahdo Diocese of USA and Canada v. Abune Sinoda. At issue was whether Abune Sinoda Tafla, the former head of the diocese who was defrocked in 2016, could continue living at a property in Hyattsville that the diocese’s corporation has owned since 2011.
Tafla maintains he remains the diocese’s rightful bishop of the diocese and has refused to vacate the church property, arguing that the church’s Holy Synod, which removed him, is itself illegitimate. In response, the diocese took him to court seeking his removal.
Justice Jonathan Biran authored the unanimous opinion, overturning lower court rulings that had concluded courts couldn’t intervene in the dispute because of its religious context.
“Because it is undisputed that the [Eritrean Orthodox Tweahdo Diocese] holds legal title to the Property and has revoked Respondent’s license to reside at the Property, the [Diocese] is entitled to judgment in its favor on its claim for wrongful detainer,” Biran wrote. “We agree with the [Diocese] that this case is properly decided under neutral principles of Maryland law and that it is entitled to judgment on its claim for wrongful detainer.”
The court noted that no lease, employment agreement, deed provision or church governing document ever gave Tafla an enforceable legal right to occupy the residence. He paid no rent, and the corporation never treated him as a tenant with possessory rights.
In 2005, the third Patriarch of Eritrea, Abune Antonios, appointed Tafla to serve as head of the North American diocese. Soon after, Antonios was forcibly removed from power by the Eritrean government and later died in 2022.
According to court documents, the church’s synod sent a letter in June 2016 announcing Tafla’s removal from office, citing multiple alleged acts of disobedience. Tafla refused to leave either his position or the residence, and in 2021 moved to incorporate a separate body, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church Diocese of the Union of Churches Abroad, Inc.
Both the District Court of Maryland and the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County had previously ruled in Tafla’s favor, reasoning that the dispute was fundamentally doctrinal and therefore barred from judicial review under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.
Biran, however, rejected this claim, writing in the Maryland Supreme Court opinion that “secular law applies” in cases like these “where it does not infringe on religious prerogatives.”
“If a court need not answer an ecclesiastical question to resolve a dispute, and can instead apply neutral principles of law to decide the merits, then the court must do so,” he continued.
“Where there is no basis to conclude that a legal right to property is dependent upon church governance, the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine has no application.”
