The Dennis Canon is a common (though unofficial and unfavored) name used for Title I.7.4 (as presently numbered) of the Canons

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

The Canon states:

History and Purpose

The Dennis Canon is named after the attorney and later Suffragan Bishop of New York Walter Dennis, who drafted it . It was passed by the 66th General Convention in 1979, having been introduced by the Committee on Canons of the House of Bishops as D-024 of that Convention .

The Dennis Canon purports to codify an assumed trust relationship the Episcopal Church claims regarding property held by parishes. The parishes, through their vestries, are supposedly trustees of the property for the benefit of their local dioceses and the national Episcopal Church.

If the Dennis Canon is assumed to be valid, a vestry could be accused in civil court of breaching its fiduciary trust

Fiduciary trust

A fiduciary trust is a fiduciary relationship in which a trustee holds the title to assets for the beneficiary. The trust's creator is called the grantor....

 if it transfers property to another ecclesiastical jurisdiction, such as a Continuing Anglican church. Adoption of the Dennis Canon followed the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, when parishes left the Episcopal Church and attempted to retain the parish property for reasons including the admission of women to Holy Orders

Holy Orders

The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....

, the adoption of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

, and the belief that some bishops held heretical

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

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Litigation Involving the Dennis Canon

In recent years, the Episcopal Church has been embroiled in a variety of theological disputes concerning its doctrine, discipline, and worship. Because of these disputes, parishes and entire dioceses have purported to leave the Episcopal Church and attempted to take property and assets with them. Almost every state court has upheld the Dennis Canon under the "neutral principles approach". and the existence of a trust relationship on behalf of the Episcopal Church, and the majority of court rulings to date have upheld the position of the Episcopal Church. One notable exception is the State of Virginia, where a Civil War era statute may override the Dennis Canon