In its efforts to strip leaving parishes of their property, a big club the Episcopal Church has used is the infamous Dennis Canon.
There’s one small problem. It is questionable whether General Convention ever passed the Dennis Canon. If it did, the proof is rather difficult to find.
And now the Dennis Canon is being challenged in court.
This will be worth watching.
This is indeed the "Nuclear Option." If the parish wins, there will be many other such victories. If the diocese/TEO wins, it will be that much harder if not impossible for future parishes wishing to leave. OTOH, there will be a Super-Dennis Canon passed at GC2009, so it may not matter much.
ReplyDeleteBut, as you know, canons passed in 2009 cannot bind parishes which have already left . . . as much as 815 would wish it so.
ReplyDeletewannabe