That Dennis Canon The Episcopal
Church has used to grab the property of departing orthodox parishes? It most likely was not really enacted
in the first place.
George Conger has posted his
pleading in the California Episcopal Church cases, and it is damning. The conclusion:
I
believe that the Dennis Canon was not properly adopted. In that regard, I
affirm those findings: (1) that documentation relating to the Dennis Canon of
the 1979 General Convention is missing from the archives and therefore that it
cannot be verified that the canon was lawfully adopted by the Convention; (2)
that no evidence exists in the archives that shows notice as required by Canon
V.1 Section 5a was given to the wider church; (3) that no evidence exists in
the archives that shows a motion to suspend the rules was offered to the House
of Deputies under Rule VI.22 to permit the resolution to be considered out of
time or that two-thirds of the deputies voted for such a suspension . . .
So in all likelihood what we have
here is a national church using a canon they never properly enacted to grab property
for which they never paid*.
The Episcopal Church is lucky it
is not being prosecuted for fraud.
---
(*In
a few cases, dioceses may have given departing parishes financial aid in times
past. But in no court case of
which I am aware is that anywhere near the expenditures of the local parish
itself in purchasing and building its properties.)
There are often cases which would be slam dunks IF the court would take them. Sadly these are all trivial cases, however important they are to us.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is some courts seem hellbent to side with the national hierarchy of a denomination no matter what the evidence.
ReplyDeletewannabe