Conger Affadavit: No Evidence Dennis Canon Was Ever Passed by General Convention

Matt Kennedy
Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Friday the judge in the case of the Diocese of Central New York against Good Shepherd Binghamton will hear a motion to dismiss the suit. One of the documents that will be filed is The Rev. George Conger's Affidavit regarding his Dennis Canon research [PDF]:

...13) There were some records for each day of the convention, but on the 10th legislative day when the House of Deputies is reputed to have adopted the Dennis Canon, the record becomes quite sketchy since the supporting documentation ends.

14) I reviewed the Handbook of the Secretary of the House of Deputies. This book contained all of the legislative actions and committee reports, and was where the reports on legislation from the 10th day of Convention should have been located, but they were not there. Days 1 through 9 inclusive were present, as was day 11, but all there was from the 10th day was the consent calendar. All that had survived in the documentary record was the 10tth day’s agenda with handwritten pen annotations made on the by the Secretary of the House on the typed calendar of the actions to be addressed that day. A copy of the September 19, 1979 Calendar with the handwritten marks is annexed hereto as Exhibit “D”

15) While other agenda items were checked or marked by pen on the typed calendar, the Dennis Canon was not marked off in any manner whatsoever. The references to the Dennis Canon is listed as Item #14 as “Report of Committee #5 on Canons H/B 75 and H/B 76 (D-24) (See Committee Report) Amend Canon I-5 and Canon II-7" on the bottom of the first page of that September 19, 1979 Calendar of the House of Deputies. Most all of the other calendar items were checked or marked, but not the Dennis Canon.

16) Further documentary evidence of the Dennis Canon, Resolution D-24 as contained in Message No. 76 and Committee Report 13 as contained in Message No. 75 was not in the records which I examined.

17) I did a complete search of the all of the records held by the Archive for the 1979 General Convention to see if these missing records might be out of order and misfiled, but did not find them. In that search I examined the “print shop” binder—a record of all items sent for duplication, and there I found only the 10th day summary. On page 9, the summary reports resolution D-24 as amended was adopted by the Deputies, and message 204 memorializing this action was sent to the House of Bishops—-however no copy of this message has survived either, and is known only by that reference.

...more (PDF)

Supporting Exhibits (PDF)

This article comes from Stand Firm
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/

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