When you elected us as Trustees of your parish, you entrusted us with certain legal and fiduciary responsibilities to support the ministry of the parish and to manage and maintain parish assets so that those ministries could continue and flourish. We believe we have a legal, moral and spiritual duty to act in the best interest of our congregations ”“ the people who elected us to serve them.
The diocese claims that our responsibility as Trustees is to act in the best interest of the Diocese and or the Anglican Church of Canada. Legal threats have been made against us, as Trustees, if we fail to comply with edicts from the diocese. Clearly there are legal and financial implications if we act or if we do not act. After consultation with legal counsel, we have taken steps as a group, on behalf of all four congregations, to ask the courts in BC to clarify who are the valid Trustees of our four parish corporations and what our duties as Trustees are at this time.
We have decided to act together as a group to maintain our unity since the primary issues in dispute ”“ particularly with respect to the trusts surrounding the church properties and assets of the parishes, as well as the duties of the Trustees ”“ are the same for us all.
We are saddened that we are forced to defend ourselves against the diocese’s hostile actions, but the alternative is to voluntarily vacate the churches and hand over the buildings and assets of the parishes to the diocese. We feel this would be an abandonment of the legal and fiduciary responsibilities you entrusted to us as elected Trustees. However, we will certainly comply with any final determination of the court ordering us to hand over our buildings. While we know that the Church is the people not the buildings, we are concerned that the ministry of our parishes will suffer should we be forced to find alternate accommodation for Sunday worship and ongoing ministry.
In the letter at St. Johns website, I count 4 different churches, not 3, as your headline says.