Posted on 02/10/2007 11:58:58 AM PST by XR7
A split within the Episcopal Church has begun and is on its way to court -- something akin to "divorce court," it seems.
More than 100 Episcopal parishes -- and some dioceses -- have either left the denomination or requested alternative oversight within the worldwide Anglican Communion. One of them is St. Stephen's Church in Heathsville, Va.
"We left the Episcopal Church because we could no longer be under the leadership of people who have the attitude that they did about the authority of Scripture," said the Rev. Jeffrey Cerar, rector of St. Stephen's. "Starting several years ago, the Episcopal Church elected and put in place a homosexual bishop and did so in disregard of the Scriptures. It was just a symptom of a much larger problem, which is that the leadership of the Episcopal Church does not regard Scripture as authoritative in the same sense that Christians always have before."
He added: "One of the symptoms of the church now is that the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, (Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schorri) is saying that Christ is not the only way to salvation -- just a way."
Cerar's church is one of 11 that recently left the Virginia diocese. Bishop Peter Lee, in return, filed suit against each of the 11, seeking to confiscate the church properties -- and has taken steps to defrock 27 clergy associated with those churches.
Cerar said his congregation is now Anglican -- not Episcopalian -- and there's no going back.
"(Bishop Lee) has taken the position that congregations cannot leave the Episcopal Church -- only individuals can," the Rev. Jeffrey Cerar told CitizenLink, "(but) our congregation, as a congregation, took a vote, and by a three-fourths majority, decided in a duly constituted meeting to sever our ties -- and we also voted to keep our property."
The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president and CEO of the American Anglican Council, accused Bishop Lee of "betraying" and "deceiving" the churches by leading them to believe that they could leave without retribution.
Anderson said the Virginia diocese had been in negotiations with the 11 churches until the bishop suddenly broke off the talks and reneged upon a process Lee had established to reach an amicable separation.
"These actions (by the diocese of Virginia) are shameful and un-Christian," he said. "The bishop's refusal to consider further negotiation appears to be intentionally punitive."
Cerar, by the way, is one of the 21 priests who Bishop Lee declared to be "inhibited." Six others had their credentials revoked.
" 'Inhibited' means that the bishop has said that we have 'abandoned' our communion -- or participation -- with the Episcopal Church," Cerar said. "Therefore, we are prohibited from functioning as ordained clergy for the next six months."
The move hasn't stopped Cerar -- or the others.
"All 21 of us have gotten ourselves recognized by either the Church of Uganda or the Church of Nigeria," he said, "so we are priests of those churches and no longer as priests in the Episcopal Church. It's a very significant thing from the perspective of the Virginia diocese, but it hasn't put me out of business. I'm still functioning as the spiritual leader of this congregation."
The Virginia diocese did not return CitizenLink's phone calls.
Next week, the heads of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces, known as "Primates," will meet in Tanzania to discuss the possibility of breaking off relations with the American church.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1765981/posts?page=3#3
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1755748/posts<
The latter has links to explore.
It (The Falls Church) is .
The church preexists the diocese.In fact, it was before there was an Episcopal church.
The earlier contending that it is cut and dried are quite wrong.
I would love to do a retreat circuit, and ask them all, "Why? Isn't His bread alone enough to sustain us?"
And of course John 14:6..."I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me"
I think Christians in Africa and other troubled places are simply struggling to survive. This can cause one to focus on what is important. They cannot afford the luxury of arguing about what color the church carpet should be (if they are fortunate enough to have a church building and a carpet) and somehow I don't think the most important thing with them is homosexuality, poltical correctness, or deconstructing the Bible.
I am certain that rule was instituted with exactly this sort of conflict in mind.
Well, you saw what Gerald Ford's TEC preacher did during his funeral: Quoted the first sentence, lopped off the second.
Virginia statutory law explicitly in cases of denominational splits gives the property to the congregation, not the larger denomination.
Besides that, TEC's legal claim to individual properties dates only to 1980...put in place by the liberal leadership at the time...to mollify (blackmail) conservative congregations into submission. Each mainline (liberal) Protestant denomination (Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal) put similar measures in place at the time, for the same reason.
There has been no purchase or fundraising on the part of the denomination for these church properties, each congregation bought and maintained the properties themselves.
The key churches in the Virginia cases date to the 1750s anyway....well over 50 years before any Episcopal denomination in America existed.
These property disputes are an attempt at intimidation and stealing on the part of liberal churchmen, plain and simple.
The Anglicans didn't much care when they stole all those Catholic properties in the 16th century...
You guessed it!
In Anglican theology, as in Reformed, (see Art 19), the church is the people, not the propertyThis is the United States of America. What does Anglican theology have to do with the law. Thomas Jefferson (a good Virginian if ever there was one) is spinning in his grave. I know some posters here are more conservative than most Americans, but the Revolution was a long, long time ago and King George III is still dead.
Thank you, your reply was helpful.
I live in northeast Florida. We have an episcopal church here that simply walked away from thier building without a court fight. A now meeting in a chapel at a catholic high school and have joined the Anglicans.
It seems to me the Episcopal church is breaking up.
It was over the same issues, homosexuality, the leadership saying there are many routes to heaven, etc. The former rector said this battle had been going on for almost 40 years and the election of the new head of the church who is a thelogical liberal was the last straw.
This is what The Falls Church is embroiled in. It seems to be an attempt by the diocese to intimidate any congregations who may want to leave into thinking twice.
Falls Church is counting on Virginia law to decide who legally holds the church propery, which goes back 300 years. We shall see.
For centuries, when a group of churchgoers had a radically different idea (e.g., God approves of homosexual conduct), they would leave the established church and found a new church or denomination. That involved real sacrifice for their beliefs. In this case, the radicals merely took over the church, and claimed its inheritance. They'll end up with lots of gorgeous buildings, and the hard-earned efforts of real Christians, but won't be able to support it with actual parishioners.
It has to do with your lack of proper terminology. If you wish to refer to property owned by the parish, you should do so; if you want to talk about the church, you are referring to the people, not the land. When dealing with legal issues, one must be specific.
Thomas Jefferson (a good Virginian if ever there was one) is spinning in his grave.
Aye, but not for the reasons that you seem to imply. Jefferson knew that the Constitution was a limit on federal, not state power. To the extent that Virginia recognizes that the Parish controls the real estate (Code of Virginia Sec. 57-9 (A)), the federal courts should not interfere.
I see that you theological liberals are still quoting that New York Times slander of the Bishop of Nigeria.
The situation was somewhat different in northeast Florida. I looked at some of the real estate records there, and the Bishop had the properties titled in his name; they were not titled in the names of the individual parishes. In Virginia, it is my understanding that the properties are titled in the parishes, and that there are no written trusts. Thus, the legal outcome should be quite different than would have been seen in Florida.
The Virginia parishes should also be able to show bad faith dealing on the part of their bishop, which should help their case.
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