Coastline article selected for reprint in The Historiographer publication
The Coastline - February 2007
Reprinted in The Historiographer - Pentecost 2007
Mobile, AL
An article found in the February 2007 issue of The Coastline was selected recently for reprint in The Historiographer, the official publication for the the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists, and The Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Authored by Palmer Hamilton, the article received a positive response not only in our Diocese but also from outside readers of The Coastline. The article appeared in the Pentecost 2007 issue. Below is a reprint of the article.
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Why Archives Count
By Palmer Hamilton
Special to The Coastline
Mobile, AL Unfortunately, when most people hear the words "church archives," they think of musty old newspaper clippings or resolutions long (and best) forgotten. Well, that may be true in many instances, but not always.
Church archives can be invaluable legal tools or they can provide someone important family records. Being involved in a good bit of church litigation, I can certainly attest to the former, and, as an amateur historian, I can also attest to the latter. Since I have a wife and daughter to bore with the research on our family history, I will limit this article to the value of church archives from a legal standpoint.
The best way to convey this value is to recount an example. In so doing, I do not intend or want to revive old wounds. Many of those involved on the other side remain close friends. I am simply think the situation is a good example of why church archives can matter. It is also an interesting example, I think.
As most readers of Coastline know, in October, 2000, there was a vote taken at Christ Episcopal Church of Mobile to secede from the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. This action was challenged in court by the Diocese and the loyalist vestry that was named after the former vestry voted to secede.
Those wishing to secede contended that they had the right to retain the property. They believed they had a means around the Dennis Canon. This is the canon adopted in 1979 at the General Convention that states that all parish property is held in trust for the Episcopal Church and the Diocese in which the parish is located. Specifically, they believed that the church property was not in the name of the parish at all, but instead in the name of trustees for "Protestant Christians in Mobile."
Let me explain a bit of history so this might make some sense.
When the Americans took control of Mobile from the Spanish, the sleepy little colonial outpost had been a Latin colony for all but twenty years in the previous century. (The British held it from 1763 to 1783.) As such, there were few Protestants in Mobile and no Protestant churches. In the early 1820s, the Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians agreed to band together and build and own a church jointly. Since churches of the era could not hold title as corporations, title was put in the name of three trustees who were to hold it in trust for the "Protestant Christians in Mobile." Each year those worshiping at the Protestant Union Church elected trustees to hold the property for the benefit of those worshiping there.
In the 1990s, the then rector of Christ Episcopal Church, a former lawyer, started having title work done on the church property. The chain of title in the Probate Court records reflected that the trustees had never conveyed the property. Thus, in the late 1990s, in an apparent effort to bolster the argument that title was not in the parish name, the then rector had the congregation start holding separate annual elections for trustees, after having not doen so for 150 years. It was his hope that this would strengthen any future legal case.
So, when the secession vote came, those wishing to secede and keep the property contended that the Episcopal Church's Dennis Canon was not applicable. They argued that the property was held in the name of the trustees, not the parish. Thus, they contended they did not hold the trust subject to the Dennis Canon.
How then did the church archives help resolve this dispute?
They did so in several ways.
First, the incredible Episcopal Archives in Austin was able to locate a report prepared by the Missionary Bishop who had episcopal jurisdiction over Alabama prior to the formation of the Diocese of Alabama. His report noted that the members of the Protestant Union Church in Mobile had become overwhelmingly Episcopalians. Further, he stated that the members had agreed that as members of the three denominations formed their own churches, those remaining could keep the union church building. The Methodists and Presbyterians had already left and formed what is now the Government Street Methodist Church and the Government Street Presbyterian Church. This left the Episcopalians with the right to the building.
Second, I started reading the old minutes of the church from the 1830s. I found that the old building's floor had collapsed during a July 4th event in 1835, causing the members to consider building a new church. The committee formed to investigate decided the original location would be the the best available location for a new edifice. But there was concern about who held title. Understandably, the members did not want to build a church on property they did not own. These thoughts are all discussed in the minutes. In the end, the members decided to confirm the understanding that the Missionary Bishop references in his report. Specifically, the members voted, as the remaining beneficiaries and electors of trustees of the trust in question, to transfer title to the Episcopal parish.
This is why there had not been elections for trustees for over 150 years. Thus, the effort in the 1990s to revive the elections was to no avail. (There were other legal issues involved, of course, but it would take several editions of the Coastline to cover everything. I once read, "Nothing strikes dread in the hearts of a reader more than the words, 'First in a Series.'" So, don't worry, I won't go there.)
Had the old minutes not been preserved, it would have been possible for those wishing to secede to argue that the Dennis Canon did not apply. (Again, I won't bore you with all the issues that arise from this argument.)
Who would have ever imagined that minutes that old could become relevant to events today? But then as my law partner Lewis Odom taught me, "Nothing is a problem until it is a problem." This is why we preserve records even if at the time we preserve them we can't then see the specific use to which they might be put.
Palmer Hamilton serves on the Registrar-Historiographer Team and the
Standing Committee for the Diocese.
Palmer is a member of All Saints Episcopal Church, Mobile,
and is a senior partner in the law firm of Miller, Hamilton, Snyder & Odom.
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