The holy war for the right to control a church will go on after the Court of Appeal overturned an order made just hours earlier to hand control to hardliners.

Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller had ruled in favour of rebels who want to split from the ruling Canadian Synod because it backs gays in the church.

But lawyer Tim Marshall argued the judgment was made without listening to representations from his side in the battle for control of the Grace Methodist Church on North Shore Road, Pembroke.

The Appeal Court, headed by Sir James Astwood, ruled that Mrs. Justice Wade-Miller's judgment be dismissed and clarification with consultation from all sides was needed before another one was given.

Mr. Marshall attacked the first, early morning decision made by Mrs. Justice Wade-Miller and argued for a retrial.

He said: "It must be a prerequisite in a case involving trustees that those trustees appear before the court.

"This case is bad from the get go. The judge should have made an order that trustees be made a necessary part of the action. This case is fatally flawed.'' "How could she give a remedy without considering what the position of the trustees might be?'' Sir James said: "They have got to work it out themselves. It doesn't look very good for a church of Christians to be fighting amongst themselves.'' The two factions have been holding separate services but trouble spilled into the law courts when the rival sides tried to have them at the same time.

The Wesleyan Methodist Church Synod then tried to bar the rebels from the church and revoked their membership.

However in court yesterday Mr. Marshall came in for some criticism from the bench over confusion over exactly who he was representing when he admitted that he was only acting for three of the eight trustees.

He said: "Three are supporting the appeal, five have not made their intentions clear.'' However Ian Outerbridge, who is acting for the fundamentalist faction led by Willard Lightbourne, said Mr. Marshall's side were wanting two bites of the cherry after having lost the original case.

He said the Synod had urged the two factions to fight it out in the courts after accusing Mr. Lightbourne of being a trespasser in the church.

He said: "The first action was entirely mischievous. A trustee could not be a trespasser because they are a trustee.'' The court should throw out the appeal and award Mr. Lightbourne costs argued Mr. Outerbridge.

He said the local Synod had broken with the 25 articles of faith by forming a union with the United Church of Canada which, they say, had gone against Wesleyan tradition by backing the ordination of gays.

But Mr. Marshall argued that allowing the rebels to hold sway would be like allowing a Church of England church to carry on untouched even if its members said they refused to recognise the Monarch as the head of that body. After yesterday's decision, Reverend Graeme Carruth, of the local synod, said: "We continue to be hopeful.'' Tim Marshall CHURCH CHU