Dennis Canon - Litigation Involving The Dennis Canon

Litigation Involving The Dennis Canon

In recent years, a small minority of Episcopalians have challenged the Episcopal Church over its doctrine, discipline, and worship. Because of these disputes, parishes and entire dioceses have made attempts to sever ties with the rest of the Episcopal Church and attempted to take property and assets with them. To date, every state court has upheld the Dennis Canon under the "neutral principles approach", when that canon is used as the basis for the Episcopal Church's claim. Even the Commonwealth of Virginia, where a Civil War era "division statute", concerning denominations that split in two, has ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church (though the question of the Episcopal Church's trust interest was not ultimately addressed). The congregations seeking to leave had their initial court victory overruled when using the "division statute" by the Virginia Supreme Court in 2010, which held that the statute did not apply because instead of simply leaving the Episcopal denomination to form their own organization, the churches instead joined another organization affiliated with the Church of Nigeria, which had never been part of the Protestant Episcopal Church even though both were descended from the Church of England. In January, 2012, the Fairfax Circuit Court issued an order implementing the Supreme Court's decision. Some of the churches in the suit have reached settlements with the Diocese, but others have appealed.

Another case that - if appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, could prove an exception - is All Saints Parish in Waccamaw, South Carolina. This case is problematic in that the Diocese of South Carolina itself appears to be on the verge of attempting to depart from the national Episcopal Church. The local State court held that: "It is an axiomatic principle of law that a person or entity must hold title to property in order to declare that it is held in trust for the benefit of another or transfer legal title to one person for the benefit of another."

Three churches in these cases, from Georgia and Connecticut, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeals.