Good Shepherd Binghamton Asks Judge to Dismiss Lawsuit by CNY Episcopal Diocese

December 9, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Raymond J. Dague 315‑422‑2052
Daguelaw.com

The Church of the Good Shepherd filed motion papers today seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit brought by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York against the 100 member parish in Binghamton, New York. The motion to dismiss and for summary judgement by the parish was based on the lack of proper adoption of the Dennis Canon by the Episcopal Church. The Diocese previously served a motion against the parish for summary judgment based largely on the Dennis Canon. Both motions are scheduled for oral argument at 9:30 am Friday, December 12, 2008 at the courthouse in downtown Binghamton. Judge Ferris Lebous could issue an immediate ruling, but a written reserved decision from the judge sometime early next year is also possible.

Syracuse attorney Raymond Dague is defending Good Shepherd. The diocesan motion papers were notable for their great bulk, commented the attorney. “The 9" tall stack of motion papers they served against the parish was too big for an envelope,” said Dague. “A messenger dropped it off at my office in a box.” Today’s more modest filing by the parish claims that the Dennis Canon was not adopted by the 1979 General Convention, and hence the Diocese has no basis for their lawsuit. “Despite that enormous pile of papers, they just assume that the Dennis Canon is the law of the church, but don’t bother in a single sentence to argue that it was properly adopted,” said Dague. “We are going to call them on that. Since the Dennis Canon is the basis of the lawsuit to take away the church building, the judge will need to address this issue one way or the other.”

Dague’s legal papers claim that the Episcopal Church’s own documents and archives show that the Dennis Canon was not adopted.

If the Diocese prevails it could add a third empty church to the two it currently has from past diocesan efforts to force out worshiping congregations. The other church buildings are still for sale in Syracuse and Vestal, New York, but with tight borrowing and many empty churches on the market, there seem to be few prospects to buy the closed Episcopal churches.

Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams of Syracuse sued the Binghamton church last spring when process servers for the diocese served the summons and other legal papers on Good Friday on its priest, Fr. Matt Kennedy. Fr. Kennedy is a commentator on the internationally known Stand Firm website.

The diocese sued Good Shepherd because the Binghamton church and the bishop are 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. Good Shepherd 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 and now lives with his male partner. Good Shepherd recently switched its affiliation in 2007 to an American bishop who is under the Anglican episcopal jurisdiction of Kenya in Africa. The Episcopal Diocese then broke off negotiations for a peaceable resolution of the dispute and filed this lawsuit.