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.
The better answer is push back, and do not let the bishop touch the property. Mortgage it to the hilt, putting a poison pill in there. Use the mortgage money for legal funds, if needed.
Don't let the bishops touch anything. Don't let their people on the premises. Make them fight for poseession through all of the courts, and then refuse to comply with the court decisions and make them fight for EVICTION through all the courts. Before the full cycle runs its course, there may well be such an exodus from the Episcopal central control that the central authorities change course, or run out of resources.
There is no reason not to fight for every inch and then, even if you lose, refuse to give anything up and make the other side go through the whole painful process of actually getting the sherriffs out there to do the evictions. Make the sherriffs have to go through the appalling spectacle, on camera, of physically pulling faithful parishoners, weeping, out of their church. Let the cameras roll and hear the injustice. The bad guys may win a victory or two, but they will lose the war if every single parish fights to the death and literally forces sherrifs to physically remove them from the (mortgaged and emptied) properties in the end.
The "split groups" owned the properties long before the "Episcopal Diocese" ever existed. Over-sight organizations are not entitled to a wealth share when they fail to provide services.
This is exactly what the homos want; to destroy the church. Look what they have done to the Catholic Church, marriage, etc. and mostly with the help of the ACLU they are moving for further destruction.
"In light of the consecration of a practicing homosexual bishop on November 2nd (2003), the Episcopal Church is declared ANATHEMA! This is the church in Pergamum spoken of in Revelation 2:12. I can only advise anyone in that church to LEAVE. God will not be mocked by a church more worried about offending sinful men than God Himself. God cannot and will not bless sin. The Episcopal Church is no better than the abominable Metropolitan Community Churches that promotes, glorifies, and takes pride in the sin of homosexuality." Bill Keller
"Mortgage it to the hilt, putting a poison pill in there...Make them fight for poseession through all of the courts, and then refuse to comply with the court decisions and make them fight for EVICTION through all the courts..."
Hmmm. Doesn't the Diocese own the property? This wouldn't seem like a very Christian response. If you decide that your landlord has principles that are incompatible with yours and that you want to stop supporting him, it would make most sense to move out and find another place, not to barricade yourself in your apartment, refuse eviction notices, and make the sheriff drag you out.
My church started in a living room, and it could return there in a heartbeat if necessary (though it would require several large living rooms at this point--they would be provided). Too many churches have been destroyed by wars over worldly possessions and real estate. If they agreed to the terms of the deal in the beginning, why renege now and flaunt the law? Why not just move out and leave the diocese with an empty building, or negotiate a fair sale price?
They had a segment about this on Brit Hume's "Special Reporot."
So much for our big tent. I find it interesting that the "conservatives" insist on ending Episcopal dialogue. No one is forcing these parishes to have gay ministers, preach "pro-gay" sermons, or do anything "pro-gay". Gene Robinson is very far away in New Hampshire and the woman presiding bishop is a figure head with no authority inside the VA diocese. All these buildings a properties were purchased with donations by Episcopalians given to the Episcopal Church, not to some splinter dissidents who have captured a parish here or there. I hope they don't get a dime. Schism takes a thousand times longer to heal than to create. See Rome vs Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Rome vs Protestants, Protestants vs Protestants
Thanks. Good game plan!
He said he, his wife and children all voted to disassociate with the US church.
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