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CNY Diocese: St. Andrew’s Vestry Members Dismissed From Lawsuit By Episcopal Diocese; Diocese Denied an Injunction Against the Parish

September 1, 2006

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

A lawsuit brought by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York against the individual members of the St. Andrews vestry was dismissed by a state supreme court judge today. They had been named as co-defendants in a civil lawsuit against the parish brought by the Diocese to seize the property of the Syracuse, New York church. In addition, Judge James Murphy also denied the request of the lawyers for the Diocese for an injunction against the parish which would have shut the church down. The bishop’s lawyers had sought to prevent any “property transfers” at the parish, which would have frozen their bank accounts.

The judge also threw out the Diocese’s lawsuit against St. Matthias Society, LTD. St. Matthias is an independent not-for-profit corporation which aids parishes faithful to the historic faith of the church and the Anglican Communion. It has been supporting the work of St. Andrews.

Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams sued the parish in July after St. Andrews declared the Anglican Archbishop of Rwanda to be its spiritual authority rather than the bishop of Central New York. The diocese claims a so-called “Dennis Canon” trust on the parish property, 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.

The lawsuit against the parish will continue in what the judge said is likely to be "protracted litigation."

The Dennis Canon is a church law which asserts that no parish leaving the Episcopal Church can keep its church property. St. Andrews never accepted that unilateral action by the national church and the diocese, and disputes that these canons were properly adopted.

“It’s a lot like telling my employees that if they leave my employment, that they forfeit their houses to me,” Dague argued to the court today. “A court should laugh at any employer who pulled that kind of stunt. But this is effectively what the Episcopal Church is trying to do to St. Andrews.”

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.