AS Haley: A Deal That ECUSA Cannot Refuse

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The law must mean nothing any more. Up is down; black is white; and all property of Episcopal parishes everywhere is now the "property of the Episcopal Church." Consider this quote, taken word for word from a press statement issued by the Diocese of San Diego after yet one more California trial court judge ruled that he was not interested in the facts or considering the parties' different versions of them, and that he would give the victory to the Episcopal Church (USA) as a matter of law (emphasis added):

“This decision reaffirms the principle that the property of an Episcopal congregation must be used to further the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church,” said Baker & McKenzie partner, Charles H. Dick, Chancellor of the Diocese and its attorney in the property litigations. “People should be free to leave the Episcopal Church if they wish, but they cannot take the property of the Episcopal Church with them when they depart.”

Consider the anomaly behind the words "the property of the Episcopal Church." It is like speaking of "the property of the association of all people on Facebook" -- the expression is utterly and totally meaningless. There is no property of any kind which belongs to the Episcopal Church (USA). The Episcopal Church (USA) has never owned any property since it was first established in 1789. As an unincorporated association of individual dioceses which was organized at common law, and not under the law of any one State, it cannot hold title to any property of any kind, because the common law does not recognize an association as a separate legal entity. Like the collection of people who have joined Facebook, it is just a group (of other groups called "dioceses"), and is not any one person in the eyes of the law. the rest