LAWSUIT COSTS

David Virtue reports at VirtueOnline:

It is going to cost a bundle if the National Church wants to keep parishes from fleeing its ecclesiastical clutches. Individual parishes are willing to take on the powers and to give them a run for their money these days. It is not a slam dunk for TEC. A senior cleric in TEC wrote VOL saying that a very close clergy friend of his who is on the General Convention PB&F (program budget and finance) committee tells him that the preliminary budget has a line item of $4.5 million for legal fees for 2009. This is an enormous leap from $800,000. So, if you are anticipating a fight with your diocese and the National Church knows that your parish has very deep pockets, Mrs. Jefferts Schori's attorney David Booth Beers will have no hesitation in conducting a protracted fight with you all the way to whatever state Supreme Court jurisdiction you are in ...and the National Church wishes you a blessed and prosperous New Year. Another way to look at it is: if you want to spend the parish's endowment in lawsuits, at least it means the diocese won't get it.