Episcopal Churches' Breakaway in Va. Evolved Over 30 Years

VirtueOnline-News ^ | 1/04/2007 | Alan Cooperman and Jacqueline L. Salmon

[sionnsar]

Parishioners say it happens quietly, unobtrusively: As the sick make their way to the altar, some worshipers begin speaking in tongues. Occasionally, one is "arrested in the spirit," falling unconscious into the arms of a fellow congregant.

The special faith-healing services, held one Sunday night a month at The Falls Church in Fairfax, are a rarity in the Episcopal Church. But members of The Falls Church have long felt at odds with fellow Episcopalians, who they believe have been drifting theologically in an ever more liberal direction.

Shortly before Christmas, The Falls Church and neighboring Truro Church -- which in Colonial times belonged to a single parish -- vented those feelings by voting overwhelmingly to break away from the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church.

The vote reverberated across the country because Truro and The Falls Church are two of the Washington area's most wealthy, historic and prestigious congregations. Their pews are studded on Sunday mornings with such regulars as Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and former CIA director Porter J. Goss.

Moreover, they are reversing the usual relationship between Christians in the United States and the developing world by joining seven other Northern Virginia congregations in a new missionary branch of the Anglican province of Nigeria.

The decision was emotionally wrenching and fraught with legal issues, not least of which is a potential battle with the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia for control of the two congregations' land and buildings, conservatively valued at $25 million.

But the votes appear less sudden or surprising when one realizes that for more than 30 years, Truro and The Falls Church have been part of a "charismatic revival" within mainline Protestantism, said the Rev. Robert W. Prichard, professor of Christianity in America at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

Charismatic, in this case, refers to...

[sionnsar]

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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

[sionnsar]

Now I wonder abobut St. Luke's Ballard...

[tellw]

I appreciate what they're doing in terms of Anglicanism, but I prefer Episcopal church worship without a rock band/rhythm section. Anglicanism should include a healthy diet of the music of Herbert Howells, S.S. Wesley, and Charles Stanford. :)

[AnalogReigns]

I know both Falls Church and Truro, and have friends who attend there. These are FAR from "charismatic" congregations, rather they are classical evangelical churches who tolerate charismatics--which more "tolerant" liberal churches won't put up with.

The whole article is more balanced than the excerpt though and indicates that the charismatic movement brought these churches into the greater evangelical world. It is true, according to friends there, that most members are not "cradle to grave" Episcopalians" and bring a variety of theological opinions to their small groups. All the better though, as classical Anglicanism can really inform some of the less helpful parts of generic evangelicalism...the Lord is doing His work!

[sionnsar]

The whole article is more balanced than the excerpt though

I wanted to post the entire article, but even though it was on VirtueOnline in its entirety, it was originally from WaPo and I didn't want to make trouble for JimRob.

[sionnsar]

but I prefer Episcopal church worship without a rock band/rhythm section.

Me too. We are fortunate to have a rector who recently earned his PhD in music, focus on choirs. We don't have the material for a really great choir (esp. as yours truly has been recruited), but between him and his wife (who is working on her PhD in music, specialty piano), our church organist, we are pretty well set for traditional music.

And other than the prelude/postlude, it's strictly from the 1940 Hymnal (and plenty from above Hymn 600 therein).

[tellw]

And other than the prelude/postlude, it's strictly from the 1940 Hymnal (and plenty from above Hymn 600 therein).

I learned to sing from the 1940 Hymnal. I miss it! Some funny hymns in there too...there's one in the "Missions" section (I think it was 262) with a line about people who work in "sultry forests where apes swing to and fro." Classic.

[sionnsar]

LOL -- don't think I've ever seen that one!

[tellw]

Here's the words of that hymn.

Remember all the people
Who live in far off lands
In strange and lovely cities
Or roam the desert sands,
Or farm the mountain pastures
Or till the endless plains
Where children wade through rice fields
And watch the camel trains.

Some work in sultry forests
Where apes swing to and fro,
Some fish in mighty rivers,
Some hunt across the snow.
Remember all God’s children,
Who yet have never Heard
The truth that comes from Jesus,
The glory of His Word.

God bless the men and women
Who serve Him overseas;
God raise up more to help them
To set the nations free,
Till all the distant people
In every foreign place
Shall understand His kingdom,
And come into His grace

Percy Dearmer, 1929

[sionnsar]

Thanks! I tried to look it up, but the online hymnal merely said it was copyrighted.