the Rev. George Conger: Parish Property Paper
[Ed. Note: The Rev. George Conger has written an excellent paper on parish property ownership that he researched for St. Anne's, Oceanside, CA and published last month. The 70 page paper is available in .pdf format at the url below. The paper's short summary is given below. Cheryl M. Wetzel]
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/parish-property-and-the-episcopal-church-history-theology-law/
Parish Property Papers
Lawyers representing St Anne’s Church in Oceanside, California commissioned this paper from me in September, 2009, to assist them in their litigation with the Diocese of San Diego. It represents my thinking and the fruit of my researches since the first paper I wrote on this subject for the AMiA in 2003.
In recent years I have come under the influence of Mark McCall and Allan Haley in my thinking on these issues. Their insights can be seen in this paper, however, the researches and conclusions are my own, as are any mistakes, errors or omissions.
To sum up my thinking on this topic … I follow Bishop White of Pennsylvania and Bishop Vail of Kansas … parishes/dioceses should not secede from the Episcopal Church, but the polity—constitution, history, theology—shows that they may.
The moral rights of the author, and copyright are hereby reserved.
George Conger