I write as a longtime member of the Diocese of Chicago, a lawyer in my secular vocation, an award-winning writer of devotional essays, and as a Christian who believes in the word of God, first to advise you of an adverse ruling in the Illinois Appellate Court in long-pursued litigation against the former Diocese of Quincy and second, to request your intermediation to have this Diocese and others cease and desist from further litigation over the physical property and intangible assets of those parishes or dioceses which have chosen to leave the national body.

On May 13, the Illinois Appellate Court sanctioned the Diocese of Chicago for bringing a second lawsuit after it had already lost the first one at the trial court. I do not know how much this Diocese will have to pay for the departing parishes' and diocese's legal fees, but it can be expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is money that comes from my pocket and that of other devoted Christians, all to pursue a legal position that is, frankly, untenable. As explained at length in the Appellate Court's opinions, the national church has been wrong on the law (insofar as it has contended that the Episcopal Church is "hierarchical"), wrong on the facts (insofar as it has contended that the Diocese has a protected property interest in the buildings and other assets), and the act of pounding on the table and arguing someone else's case has grown thin. Because of this gross mis-use of funds, I will ask my parish, Church of the Ascension in Chicago, to reduce its annual giving to the Diocese.

Regardless of the applicability of St. Paul's admonitions against Christians' use of secular courts, the scorched earth policies of your immediate predecessor should be rejected. While I believe that you do not have the authority to tell your brother and sister bishops how to run the affairs within their dioceses, you do have the power of the purse as to the use of national church funds in this foolish enterprise. I bid you to use it.

Your faithful servant,

David G. Duggan
cc: The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Lee
The Rev. Patrick Raymond