UPDATE: Grace church building trial

THE BACKGROUND: Grace Church & St. Stephen's and the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado are battling for legal ownership of a $17 million Gothic church and other property at 601 N. Tejon St. The trial started Feb. 10 and is expected last through the first week of March.

Grace Church & St. Stephen's is a congregation that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2007 over theological differences, but has continued to worship in the Tejon Street building that housed an Episcopal congregation since 1926. The breakaway congregation - the plaintiff in the case - maintains it is a separate corporation from the diocese and therefore owns the property. The diocese says numerous courts across the country have ruled that congregations that leave the Episcopal national body cannot take the property with them.

THE LATEST: On Wednesday, plaintiff witness Lindsay Fischer, a corporate statute expert, said that Grace Church formed a new corporation in 1973 to retain ownership of the North Tejon Street property. Defense attorneys argued there is no evidence in Grace vestry minutes, filings with the state and in church bylaws that Grace had any intention of establishing a 1973 corporation.

WHAT'S NEXT: Grace senior warden Jon Wroblewski and Grace rector Donald Armstrong are expected to testify on Thursday about breaking ties with the Episcopal Churchto align with the Anglican Communion province in Nigeria, and how this act suggests that the parish is its own corporation. The trial begins at 8:30 a.m. at Fourth Judicial Court, Judge Larry Schwartz's courtroom.