Central New York Diocese: Lawyers for St. Andrew's Church File Papers Against Episcopal Diocese

August 24, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Raymond J. Dague 315-422-2052
http://www.DagueLaw.com

The lawsuit by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York to seize St. Andrews Church in Syracuse was dealt a setback today as lawyers for the parish filed motions against the diocese. The motions claim that the diocesan lawsuit is “frivolous” and ask that the case against the parish, the rector, and the members of the vestry be dismissed, and that the diocese pay the legal fees for the parish.

When the diocese sued the parish last month, they neglected to tell the court that there was a precedent in New York for Free Churches to be independent of diocesan control, even if they had been affiliated with an Episcopal diocese for many years. The lawyers for the parish discovered the precedent, and are using it to challenge the bishop’s lawsuit. St. Andrews has been a Free Church under New York law since its incorporation in 1903, but the diocese claims a “Dennis Canon” trust on the parish property anyway, even though the deeds are in the name of St. Andrews, and the people of the parish put up the money to buy and maintain the property.

“This Free Church issue was squarely addressed in a 1995 case in Poughkeepsie, New York. In that case the court rejected the position of another Episcopal diocese, and said that a Free Church is not subject to diocesan control,” said Raymond Dague, attorney for St. Andrews and the parish members who have been sued. “But the diocese of Central New York either overlooked that case, or did not want the court here to know about it.”

The case is on for Friday, September 1st for oral argument of all of the motions including a motion by the diocese for an injunction to prevent money transfers at the parish, and St. Andrew’s motions to dismiss. Dague has been quoted previously as saying that if the diocese got their injunction that such an order would effectively shut the church down.

Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams sued the parish after St. Andrews declared the Archbishop of Rwanda to be its spiritual authority rather than the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York.

The bishop and the parish were on the opposite sides of a controversy over homosexual bishops and the authority of Scripture which has engulfed the Episcopal Church for the last few years. St. Andrews adheres to the traditional teaching of the church that sex outside of marriage is prohibited by the Bible, while the Bishop and the leaders of the diocese have been outspoken supporters of the homosexual bishop of New Hampshire who divorced his wife to live with his male partner.

St. Andrews Church is a member of the Anglican Communion Network which seeks to be faithful to the traditional teachings of the Church. In the weeks following the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in June of 2006, seven entire dioceses (also Anglican Communion Network members) have disavowed the leadership of the national church and of the newly elected presiding bishop of the church, and have appealed to the archbishop of Canterbury over the same issue.

Over the last three years, twenty-two of 38 primates of the World Wide Anglican Communion have declared broken or impaired communion with The Episcopal Church (TEC) because of this issue, and the vast majority of the Anglican Communion believes TEC has abandoned the faith and practice of Anglicanism as well as historic Christian teaching.