Posted on 12/18/2006 1:12:45 AM PST by bruinbirdman
At least seven Virginia Episcopal parishes, opposed to the consecration of a gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions, have voted overwhelmingly to break from the U.S. church in a demonstration of widening rifts within the denomination.
Two of the congregations are among the state's largest and most historic: Truro Church in Fairfax City and the Falls Church in Falls Church, which have roots in the 1700s. Their leaders have been in the vanguard of a national effort to establish a conservative alternative to the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.
The result of the weeklong vote, announced Sunday, sets up the possibility of a lengthy ecclesiastical and legal battle for property worth tens of millions of dollars. Buildings and land at Truro and the Falls Church are valued at about $25 million, according to Fairfax County records.
The votes are fresh evidence of an increasingly bitter split within the U.S. Episcopal Church. Seven of its 111 dioceses have rejected the authority of Presiding U.S. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, installed in November as the first woman to head an Anglican church. Schori supports V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
Truro and the Falls Church, with a combined membership of more than 3,000, will form the core of what is envisioned as a new Fairfax-based mission of the conservative Episcopal Church of Nigeria. The head of the Nigerian church, Archbishop Peter Akinola, has voiced support for a pending law in that country that includes prison sentences for gay sexual activity.
Will these Secessionists fire on Fort Sumter?
Good for them...standing up for what is right.
"Marriage: Get It Straight!"
Bumper Sticker/T-Shirt
http://www.cafepress.com/titillatingtees.90175067
WTG parishes
Glad to see some Episcopalians have morals.
Religion is the opium of the people when they mainline it.
One must follow Christ and the Bible and not the shifting sands of human opinion.
Hats off and thumbs up to these churches.
The practice of heresy by the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church does not go unnoticed by the true believers. But you can see the difficulty they face with the threats by the corrupt bishops to take away their property. That is the dilemma faced by multiple parishes; push back and lose your assets, a form of coercion ehhh? I suspect that many are quietly disagreeing but tolerating the heresy.
May God's blessings follow and dwell with them.
Hopefully, the split groups can negotiate a good price for the real estate and remain in same location.
It is all about money.
Amen!
I was actually surprised to see a couple of these churches pull away from the Episcopals. Long ago, before the heresy was completely normalized, we still worshipped with the Episcopals - but when we moved to NoVA, it took a few tries before we found a parish that wasn't completely on the liberal edge of the denomination. A couple of the ones named in recent days were parishes that we had at one time eschewed in favor of more conservative ones - so I'm pleasantly surprised to see them break and go with the Anglicans.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Both the Falls Church and Truro became more evangelical in the last 30 years. When I was growing up (about 2 miles from the Falls Church) in the '60s and '70s it was not evangelical at all...just a typical Episcopal church.
The Falls Church Rector John Yates gets credit for bringing them back under the authority of the Bible.
That's why we're Catholic today -- we and the rest of the old "High Church" crowd who finally came to our senses and realized our church had been hijacked and destroyed. Thankfully Rome was willing to let bygones be bygones and take us in. Shoulda made the short trip across the Tiber a long, long time ago.
It's so much better to be watching this horrendous train wreck from somewhere OTHER than inside one of the cars. Just morbid curiosity instead of a fight for survival.
FNC has a homosexual woman and bob beckle on to debate this!
I wonder what happens to the assets and will the episcopal go "gestapo" for the buildings.
I'm a very non-political Episcopalian; I can understand why some would want to secede, but I can't understand why they'd want to go under the Nigerian umbrella. I don't support prison for homosexuals, I'm not Nigerian, and a spokesman for the Nigerian bishop says he only advocates imprisoning gays "to appease Muslim leaders" in Nigeria.
I don't want my church to appease Muslim leaders.
Fortunately, my church is not likely to take a vote on secession.
Guts and determination. How many times have we heard the liberal press do a Chicken Little on any subject - environment, debt, etc. etc. - only to forget the follow-up story, especially when their fear-mongering goes wrong?
I know there have been posts of editorials from DC area papers who are incensed that those nasty Christians are exercising their rights to free association and worship.
In short, the EC acted decisively and quickly and the professional hand-wringers are absolutely astounded.
Our Epis. church left the denomination and joined a great group, the Anglican Mission in America.
http://www.theamia.org
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