[oh8eleven]

All Saints dissolved by vote.
Episcopal diocese moves to shutter Irondequoit church, transfer property

(November 20, 2005) — Rochester's Episcopal diocese voted Saturday to dissolve All Saints Episcopal Church in Irondequoit and transfer its property and other assets to the trustees of the diocese.

"It is so ordered," Bishop Jack McKelvey said moments after a majority of delegates cast a voice vote to end their relationship with All Saints.

The church had refused to pay more than $16,000 it owed the diocese because it believes the diocese and the Episcopal Church of the USA shouldn't have supported the 2003 ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire and given individual dioceses the right to decide whether to bless same-sex unions.

[Huber]

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/NEWS01/511180393/1002/NEWS

"The money, called an apportionment, is required from each of the local diocese's 53 congregations, but this is the first time anyone can remember the threat of a church being dissolved for not paying, said the Rev. Canon Carolyn Lumbard, a spokeswoman for the diocese."

I guess that the other times parishes did not pay did not pose a threat to the legitimacy of the hierarchy. It shows that the diocese has a real fear of the truth.

Another important fact, from the same article:

"All Saints did offer to put the money in an escrow account until 2006, when the U.S. Episcopal Church holds its next general convention, but the local diocese turned down that offer."

So it's clearly not a matter of the parish's solvency or of its willingness to pay its apportionment to a diocese that will remain a part of the Anglican Communion.