Ms Greer, on behalf of Fr Kelley, argued that the "initial action" can be resolved separately from the primary case, and since the courts have ruled that the vestry elected in February 2012 is the legal vestry, the ACA and the Bush group (who represented themselves as "Rector, Wardens, and Vestry") do not have standing in the "initial action". She urged the judge to dismiss the case for lack of standing by the plaintiff.
The judge asked how Fr Kelley would be prejudiced by a delay to wait for the appeal to be resolved. Ms Greer said it was unfair to Fr Kelley to have the matter dragged out. The judge nevertheless ruled that Fr Kelley was not prejudiced if the matter was continued. As a result, he continued the hearing until July 8, on the assumption that the appeal would be resolved by then. Naturally, we'll see.
This case, of course, is not judge Murphy's, and my wife thinks he doesn't want to spend the time it would take to get involved at this point, when the outcome of the appeal will do a lot of his work for him. So it's a delay (nothing new there), but nothing has really changed.
Please continue to pray for Fr Kelley, the vestry, and the parish.
