Wednesday, September 29, 2010

OMAHA, NE:Anglo-Catholic Parish Challenges Diocese over Validity of Dennis Canon

OMAHA, NE: Anglo-Catholic Parish Challenges Diocese over Validity of Dennis Canon
St. Barnabas wants the courts to settle the issue

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
Sept. 29, 2010

In what could be a landmark case challenging the validity of the Dennis Canon, an Anglo-Catholic parish in Omaha, Nebraska, is in the process of defending a lawsuit filed by the diocese for the church's property. The parish voted to disaffiliate from the national church, arguing that the diocese has neither an Express nor an Implied Trust in the property. They want the courts to settle the issue once and for all.

St. Barnabas Church attorney John Chatelain told VOL that the numerically small but thriving parish voted in Sept. of 2007 to leave The Episcopal Church with its property. They have not paid their assessment since to the diocese.

"The parish holds both the title and deeds to the property and, based on neutral principles of law recognized in the State of Nebraska statutes, we believe our case is airtight," said Chatelain. The title has always been in the name of the vestry, never the diocese, he said.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

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