POST AND COURIER CONFUSED

The Charleston Post and Courier published an editorial in today's paper (Nov. 5), "End Church Dispute with Mediation." Read the editorial here . Unfortunately, the editors were confused and apparently understood neither mediation nor the issues involved.

On one hand, the editors said, "The purpose of mediation beginning Monday is to determine how to implement the August decision..." In fact, the August decision returned 29 parishes and Camp St. Christopher to the Episcopal Church diocese. Implementing the decision would be settling the details of exactly how the 29 parishes and the camp will return to their ancestral home in the Episcopal Church.

Then, the editors contradicted themselves by declaring, "But an agreement should be reached that lets the Diocese of South Carolina and the Episcopal Church in South Carolina part ways while remaining in the churches..." The editors concluded by calling for the DSC congregations to be allowed to keep the properties in question.

What the editors suggested was contradictory. A property cannot be returned to the Episcopal Church and stay outside of the Episcopal Church.

In fact, the mediation covers all issues involved in state and federal courts, not just property.

Concerning property, the Diocese of South Carolina recognized the Dennis Canon for years before the schism of 2012. The parishes were part and parcel of the diocese. This meant they also recognized the Dennis Canon . The Canon said all property was held in trust for the Episcopal Church and the diocese. So, the idea that the parish always owned the property on its own is simply not true.

In the August 2 decision of the South Carolina Supreme Court, the majority of justices agreed that 29 of the 36 parishes had acceded to the Dennis Canon and that this accession, once made, could not be unilaterally revoked. The deal was akin to a contract. One side cannot change the terms without agreement of the other side.

The fact is that in its schism against the Episcopal Church, the breakaway diocese tried on its own to change the church rules it had accepted. It had no right to do that. It had no right to discard the laws of the church. Therefore, the parishes did not in fact remove their local properties from the Episcopal Church. The SC Supreme Court said this in its August decision.

Under the Dennis Canon, all 36 parish properties are under trust control of the Episcopal Church and the Church diocese. If the Church allows even 7 of them to discard this it will be a major concession to the breakaway diocese.

The editors of the Post and Courier should do their homework. Obviously they have a lot of work to do.