2018 Convention Booklet

(e) Such other reasonable measures as the Ecclesiastical Authority shall determine with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Standing Committee (or as determined by the Standing Committee acting unanimously, if it be the Ecclesiastical Authority), until the Ecclesiastical Authority declares the end or sufficient amelioration of such conditions, or applies further measures under the Canons. (f) Finally, the Bishop, with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Standing Committee (or the Standing Committee acting unanimously, if it be the Ecclesiastical Authority) may declare the Parish to be a Mission, whereupon the Ecclesiastical Authority shall appoint a Bishop’s Warden and four or more other persons to be the Bishop’s Committee, and may appoint a Vicar or Clergy-in-charge; the title of all property shall be conveyed to the Trustees of the Funds of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, Inc.; and the spiritual and temporal affairs of the congregation shall be governed by the canons which regulate the ministry, governance and administration of a Mission. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the final declaration of Mission status shall be subject to ratification by the affirmative vote of the next Annual Convention occurring 60 days or more after the declaration, failing which the congregation shall be deemed again a Parish, subject to such conditions as the Annual Convention shall determine, or in the absence of such conditions, subject to such conditions as the Ecclesiastical Authority shall determine.

References: The draft of this proposed canon draws heavily from the text and format of the canons of the Diocese of Chicago and was developed in reference to the canons of the Diocese of El Camino Real, the Diocese of Southern Ohio, and the Diocese of Louisiana.

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