The Episcopal Church’s property canons have no legal force in South Carolina that state’s Supreme Court has held.
The Sept 18 decision in the case of In Re: All Saints Parish, Waccamaw ends nine years of litigation over the mother church of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA), and is the second major legal defeat for the Episcopal Church in a week.
While the ruling only affects the state of South Carolina, the legal analysis the court used in rejecting the ”˜Dennis Canon’ — the 1979 property canon that states that parish property is held in trust by congregations for the diocese and national church — will likely have an unfavourable impact upon the dozens of other pending parish property suits prosecuted by the Episcopal Church across the nation.
It also supports the efforts of the Dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy, Pittsburgh and San Joaquin to quit the Episcopal Church and backs the statements of a Fort Worth judge who last week said there is nothing in the national constitution and canons that prohibits a diocese from leaving.
I for one always thought that 501c “corporations” were bound by contract, real estate, and corporate laws. But I’m just an elderly grandmother, what do i know?
Isn’t there something about “rendering unto Caeser”, which I do believe incorporates obeying the “laws” in place in the secular world..
The “deference” position seems almost to verge into “establishment’.
But like I said, just MHO.
Grandmother in SC
Isn’t there also ample precedent from the 19th century ? I believe that
the southern branch of the Episcopal Church was regarded as
independent of its northern branch during the U.S. Civil War. Am not sure
what steps were taken to re-unite them, although I did once read that the southern branch
was in a pretty sorry state by war’s end.
Therefore, it would seem that a diocese can choose to remove itself from the national church without let or hindrance.
Actually, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America simply ignored the secession of the southern dioceses. When the House of Bishops met and role was called, the southern bishops’ names would be called and noted as absent. After the Civil War, when the House of Bishops’ met, role was called, the southern bishops answered and their presence noted.
What the Presiding Bishop did not do was initiate law suits to recover the church property held by the southern dioceses and parishes.
I suspect that the PB’s lack of resort to the courts during the Late Unpleasantness had something to do with a million armed men interposing themselves between the sections. Ah well, glad that bout of secession is over.
4. NoVA Scout wrote:
[blockquote]I suspect that the PB’s lack of resort to the courts during the Late Unpleasantness had something to do with a million armed men interposing themselves between the sections. Ah well, glad that bout of secession is over.[/blockquote]
The remaining questions are whether or not the Diocese of South Carolina will start firing on Fort Sumter. And, if so, will Schori call out the Union forces.