F.C. Episcopal Church Faces Fight to Keep Property After Voting to Exit Denomination

[struggle4progress]

By Nicholas F. Benton
Wednesday, 22 November 2006

...The leadership of Falls Church Episcopal Church, with the Rev. John Yates as rector and a membership of 2,484, reacted strongly against the November 2003 Episcopal Church consecration of the openly-gay Rev. Eugene Robinson as a bishop. Since then, the church and an ally, the Truro Episcopal Church of Fairfax, have spearheaded a movement of churches to exit the denomination, citing what they claim was, in fact, “a disagreement spanning the past four decades over basic truths of the Christian faith.”

But under the rules of the 2.2-million member Episcopal denomination, each of its diocese own all the real estate of the churches under its control. By those rules, if the Falls Church Episcopal finalizes its decision to leave the denomination at a vote of the entire congregation early next month, the church members will have to vacate the historic downtown Falls Church site, and its church-owned surroundings, where George Washington was once a vestryman ...

The value of the downtown Falls Church City site of The Falls Church is estimated at $27 million, but could be much higher, given the intense development plans of the City around it. That property includes a parking lot and strip shopping center acquired by the church in 2000. The church compelled the vacation of the shopping center by the seven businesses there ...

An attempt supported by The Falls Church and Truro, along with other discontented denominations, to change the state law in the Virginia legislature to mandate that property ownership be held by local churches, and not the diocese of the Episcopal Church, failed ...

http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=521&Itemid=33 :7

[Vorta]

1. Am I reading this correctly? They shot themselves in the foot?

Truro was taken over by fundies years ago. Unfortunately for them, they were just a little late in doing so. After some fundies (converts mind you) had taken over a church in Pittsburgh for the purpose of stealing it, the Episcopal Church USA changed its rules and how it holds property.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I'm not sure when the case you are referring to happened, but

the policy about the diocese owning the parish property goes back at least to the 1980s.

There was a parish in Portland that seceded, but somehow it negotiated a deal with the diocese to buy its property. However, there was a tug of war going on for quite a long time. This wasn't a fundie parish but an Anglo-Catholic parish (Episcopalian, but with lots of fancy rituals that even the Roman Catholics have discarded) that objected to the ordination of women.

I attended there ONCE while I was church shopping. The rituals and the music were beautiful, but the sermon was all, "We represent the pure tradition, and everyone else is a heretic," so I left before Communion.

[Vorta]

3. Yes, I am going back to the 1980's

Sometime around 1980 the fundies, perhaps even former Episcopalians, noticed that many Episcopal churches had great locations, large endowments, and the Sunday attendance had dwindled to a few old folks. They saw an opportunity to steal these churches, because it had never occured to the bishops that someone would do such a thing. So these guys joined the church with their families, were welcomed with open arms, got on the vestry, and proceeded to take over.

As I recall, the instance which brought this to the attention of the bishops and which brought about the change in policy was in Pittsburgh. The Bishops must have been pretty hush about what they were doing to prevent this, because the guy at Truro was blatant about his intentions. He came to our immediate attention because we were members of Pohick at that time.

[kwassa]

4. These things are decided on a diocese by diocese basis, though

Holding on to the assets is obviously a major card for the majority of the Episcopal churches, and there certainly have been instances of congregations walking away from their facilities to show their displeasure with the direction of the church. One of our former seminarians became a rector in short order in a Southern church where there was a facility and few congregants after the bulk of the church walked, including the former rector.

If, however, the church has a conservative bishop running the diocese, things might turn out quite differently, though it seems unlikely that an entire diocesse would leave ECUSA.

Check this out:
http://www.thefallschurch.org/clientimages/29455/realignment/falseanalogyoutline.pdf

This is a truly repulsive anti-homosexual course outline on The Falls Church website.



a very historic role, and the city of Falls Church was named after this church.

http://www.thefallschurch.org/templates/custhefalls/details.asp?id=29455&PID=203829

The first church to be built after it was established by the Colonial General Assembly in 1732 was a wooden building on this site as a part of Truro Parish . It was completed in 1734 by Richard Blackburn on land donated by John Trammell.

In 1762, the wood building was judged to be "greatly in decay". The vestry (the church governing body), meeting at The Falls Church, ordered a new brick building constructed on the same site. In 1763, George Washington and George William Fairfax were appointed church wardens with responsibility to contract for a new building.

[JerseygirlCT]

5. It appears San Joaquin may be trying

or at least the Bishop is trying to pull his whole diocese out.

Here's the letter from Presiding Bishop Schori about the situation:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_79844_ENG_HTM.htm

[kwassa]

6. the upcoming controversy

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_78309_ENG_HTM.htm

San Joaquin diocese to consider constitutional amendments severing relationship with the Episcopal Church

(excerpt)

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin's December 1-2 convention will be asked to consider constitutional amendments that would "place the Diocese of San Joaquin in an ideal position to be part of any ecclesiastical structure that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primates might design," according to a statement posted on the diocese's website October 1.
The 13 amendments or additions are intended "with appropriate consultation (e.g. Archbishop of Canterbury/Primates of the Anglican Communion) to transfer all relationships and communion from ECUSA to an Anglican Province to be determined at a Special Convention called by the Bishop of San Joaquin," the statement said.

(jump)

Eight of the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses are requesting a relationship with an Anglican primate other than the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in what is being called Alternative Primatial Oversight (APO). They are Central Florida (Orlando-based), Dallas (which has requested a relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury), Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy, San Joaquin (California), South Carolina and Springfield (Illinois). The bishops of Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin refuse to ordain women to the priesthood or deploy women priests in their dioceses.

Only the Diocese of Quincy's convention has yet ratified the APO requests. Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, South Carolina and Springfield all have annual conventions later this year. Central Florida's convention is set for late January.


some commentary on this. A scary development.

http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/bishop-of-san-joaquin-announces-plans.html

But Father Jake stops the world!

Regarding TEC (The Episcopal Communion)undercutting the "family unit designed by God and revealed in Scripture," I'm afraid I'm not clear exactly what "family unit" the bishop is referring to here, as there are many models found in scripture, none of which resemble what we understand a "family unit" to be today. The most common marriage pattern in scripture is polygamy. Women were considered the property of the man. They were listed with the children and cattle. The bishop is selectively picking those parts of the bible that he wants to define today's "family unit." How is this selective reading of scripture any different from what the bishop accuses those he opposes of doing?

I first met Bp. Schofield in 1989. He was convinced then that the Episcopal Church was going to hell in a handbasket. The issues were different, but his attitude was the same. He continues to grab at any hint of heresy in an attempt to depict TEC in a harsh light. Based on these straws that he has grasped, the bishop now declares that those who disagree with him "have abandoned the Christian faith." Do you get that?

[JerseygirlCT]

7. I'm hooked on Fr. Jake's blog now.

Have to check it daily.

[kwassa]

8. Some of these guys are really good

There has been some good commentary in the EDOW newsletter, but it only comes up as a .pdf, so I can't cut and paste it into here.

Schiori sounds like she is tackling this San Joaquin thing head-on, from that letter. More kudos to her.

[JerseygirlCT]

9. It does. It sounds like it most definitely isn't her intention

to let any of this get away from her. She's got backbone!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. And then there's Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, a household apparently

consisting entirely of unmarried siblings.

Or the Apostle John "adopting" Mary after Jesus' crucifixion.