TEC's Lawyer Claims They Will Win in Any Future Court Fight
Mr. Beers, the Presiding Bishop's lawyer who sent threatening letters to the dioceses of Fort Worth and Quincy two weeks ago, has publicly proclaimed that 1) he doesn't believe the orthodox will actually leave TEC and 2) if we do leave, then national headquarters will win all of the court battles because "a diocese is the creature of General Convention." A highlight:
“These conditional things don’t particularly trouble me, although the language used in San Joaquin is very blunt,” he said. “Where are they going to go? They seem to be positioning themselves for what? They seem to be preparing themselves for the day when the Archbishop of Canterbury recognizes them as a separate province, but I don’t see evidence of that happening and I don’t see [Bishop Jefferts Schori] suing bishops and diocesan leaders without a lot more evidence that they’re doing something to take property away from the national church or violating their ordination vows.”
Mr. Beers said there might be some symbolic gestures by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to distance The Episcopal Church from the rest of the Anglican Communion. But he does not expect any formal break in part because too much of the Communion’s funding comes from the United States, both directly from The Episcopal Church and also through the Compass Rose Society.
Even if formal action to recognize the Network dioceses as the legitimate Anglican Communion partner in the United States did come, Mr. Beers said it was unlikely that would change the outcome of a property dispute in U.S. court. Despite language in the preamble to the General Convention constitution which defines it as a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, the highest legislative body to which The Episcopal Church owes allegiance is General Convention. Communion ties are merely historical and symbolic, he said.
Read the entire story from "The Living Church" here.
“These conditional things don’t particularly trouble me, although the language used in San Joaquin is very blunt,” he said. “Where are they going to go? They seem to be positioning themselves for what? They seem to be preparing themselves for the day when the Archbishop of Canterbury recognizes them as a separate province, but I don’t see evidence of that happening and I don’t see [Bishop Jefferts Schori] suing bishops and diocesan leaders without a lot more evidence that they’re doing something to take property away from the national church or violating their ordination vows.”
Mr. Beers said there might be some symbolic gestures by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to distance The Episcopal Church from the rest of the Anglican Communion. But he does not expect any formal break in part because too much of the Communion’s funding comes from the United States, both directly from The Episcopal Church and also through the Compass Rose Society.
Even if formal action to recognize the Network dioceses as the legitimate Anglican Communion partner in the United States did come, Mr. Beers said it was unlikely that would change the outcome of a property dispute in U.S. court. Despite language in the preamble to the General Convention constitution which defines it as a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, the highest legislative body to which The Episcopal Church owes allegiance is General Convention. Communion ties are merely historical and symbolic, he said.
Read the entire story from "The Living Church" here.
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 7:08 PM
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