The Dog in the Manger (IV): Bishop Seabury Church, Groton

In praesepi faeni pleno decumbebat Canis. Venit Bos ut comedat faenum, cum Canis, confestim sese erigens, tota voce elatravit. Cui Bos: “Dii te, cum ista tua invidia, perdant (inquit): nec enim faeno ipse vesceris, nec me vesci sines.”

[In a manger full of hay a dog was lying. There entered an ox to eat the hay, when the dog at once rose up and barked as loudly as he could. Said the ox to the dog: "May the gods destroy you and that envy of yours, for you yourself do not eat the hay, and you do not let me eat it."]

THE MORAL. Envy pretends to no other Happiness than what it derives from the Misery of other People. It will rather eat nothing itself than forego starving those that could have nourishment.

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[Note: Part I of this series is here; Part II is here; Part III is here.]

The latest victim of a Church property lawsuit "resolved" by an illogical and incoherent judgment, naturally in favor of ECUSA and its supporters, is Bishop Seabury Church, in Groton, Connecticut:

(Picture Credit: Deborah Straszheim. Click to enlarge.)

The Church was built after the parish acquired the property (by gift and by purchase) in 1966. The parish had originally been founded as a mission in 1875, and was named after Connecticut's first Episcopal bishop, Samuel Seabury, who was born in Groton in 1729. In 1956, the Diocese of Connecticut in 1956 admitted Bishop Seabury Church into full union. Its current Senior Associate Rector, the Ven. Ronald Gauss, has been with the parish for over 37 years.

Fr. Gauss was one of the original "Connecticut Six," whose story I have told on this page. After the group lost their suit in federal court to preserve their rights of worship, the Bishop of Connecticut and his Diocese filed suit against the rector and vestry of Bishop Seabury Church in 2008 to establish their ownership of the  property under the supposed terms of the trust unilaterally imposed by the malodorous Dennis Canon. The trial court ruled against the parish in 2010, the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld the trial court's decision in September 2011, and the United States Supreme Court declined to review that decision earlier this year.

The opinion by the Supreme Court of Connecticut is a travesty of justice -- it nonsensically reads the United States Supreme Court's majority decision in Jones v. Wolf as granting the Episcopal Church (USA) the unique power to bypass the trust laws and requirements in all fifty States, by the enactment of a mere national canon which purported at one stroke to place all Episcopal parish properties throughout the Church in trust for the denomination. Recently, your Curmudgeon's criticism of the decision was seconded by the Supreme Court of Indiana, in a decision that refused to recognize any unilaterally created denominational trust under Indiana law:

Some state courts have apparently read Jones as an affirmative rule requiring the imposition of a trust whenever the denominational church organization enshrines such language in its constitution. See, e.g., Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Conn. v. Gauss, 28 A.3d 302, 325 (Conn. 2011) .... We do not understand Jones as creating such a rule. First, such a rule would result in de facto compulsory deference by enforcing the claim of the denominational church organization merely because the trust claim is added to the denominational church organization's constitution and regardless of any contrary evidence or state law.... Second, the Court approved the neutral-principles approach as an acceptable means of applying state property and trust law.... Thus, the Court's expression that "the constitution of the general church can be made to recite an express trust in favor of the denominational church" organization, was one example of a means by which parties may be able to express their intent, "provided it is embodied in some legally cognizable form" under state law.... As explained below, under Indiana trust law, whether under an express or implied trust theory, the intent of the owner (settlor) to create a trust must be demonstrated.... Thus, under Indiana law, a claim of trust by the purported beneficiary (e.g., insertion of a trust clause into a denominational church organization's constitution), without indicia of intent on the part of the owner (settlor), is insufficient to impose a trust. 

A proper reading of Jones v. Wolf, however, was denied to the rectors, vestry and members of Bishop Seabury Church, and so they conducted their last Sunday services in their building on August 12. A parish of some 750 members, with an average Sunday attendance of between 250-300, has now been forced out of its own property to meet for the time being at a local motel on Sundays, and at another site on Wednesdays.

Meanwhile, true to form, the Diocese of Connecticut joins all of the other Episcopal dogs in the manger, as documented by this series of posts. It has no current use for the property:

The Bishop of the Connecticut Episcopal Diocese said Tuesday he would meet with area clergy next week to discuss the future of the Bishop Seabury Church in Groton. 

... Connecticut Diocese Bishop Ian T. Douglas said the plan now is to meet with local clergy to discuss how the building might best be used in the future. He said everything is on the table. 

“What I want to do is begin the conversation with those clergy of the region, to pray together and take counsel together, and begin to say, ‘What is it that God would have us do with this resource for God’s mission in Groton?’” he said.

That's a very good question, Bishop Douglas. Perhaps you should have asked it earlier, before you told the parish that if they were to be allowed to stay in their own church, they could not affiliate with ACNA, or allow their senior rector to conduct services.

In other words, Bishop Douglas, you gave them no more of a choice than the dog in the manger gave the oxen who wanted to be allowed to eat their hay. You have no use for the Church yourself, but you made certain that the ones who could use it would not be able to do so, under the conditions you dictated to them.

Aesop had you and your lot pegged 200 years ago.