Editorial: Toward a Better Way

Living Church Editorial-

During the past decade, the Episcopal Church has participated in approximately 60 court cases concerning property ownership. These cases involve, to one degree or another, the Dennis Canon, named for the late Rt. Rev. Walter Dennis, former bishop suffragan of the Diocese of New York. The Dennis Canon says this:

“All real and personal property held by or for the benefit of any parish, mission or congregation is held in trust for this church and the diocese thereof in which such parish, mission or congregation is located. The existence of this trust, however, shall in no way limit the power and authority of the parish, mission or congregation otherwise existing over such property so long as the particular parish, mission or congregation remains a part of, and subject to, this church and its Constitution and Canons.”

The Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled in September that the Dennis Canon does not apply to the formerly Episcopal parish of All Saints Church in Pawleys Island, S.C., because that parish predates the Episcopal Church. Many conservatives have greeted that ruling with joy, and they hope it sets a legal precedent across the nation.

We are not ready to join the celebration. Conservatives who expect the South Carolina ruling to establish a widespread precedent ought to ponder the legal differences between a congregation founded in the Colonial era and one founded since the establishment of the Episcopal Church.

Further, the Dennis Canon accurately describes the relationship between a congregation and a diocese, at least within a church that strives, however imperfectly, for catholic order. Conservatives cannot afford to play a semantic game that salutes catholic order as a concept (as in the Anglican Communion’s nascent covenant) but rejects it in daily practice because expensive property is at stake.


More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/10/2/editorial-toward-a-better-way