Episcopal Church, Breakaway Anglicans Fight Over Property

From VOA-

Outside the U.S. capital stands a red brick church with white wooden pews where George Washington served as a vestryman, or lay leader. The Falls Church was founded in 1732 and even gave its name to the well-to-do suburb where the church is located in northern Virginia.

But in recent years, The Falls Church has become a symbol of a division in the Episcopal Church, a Christian denomination that has given the United States more presidents than any other, and a good share of the country's Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite.

The rupture came after an openly gay man was consecrated as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire in 2004. The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and The Falls Church was one of many congregations that broke from the U.S. church by aligning with conservative Anglican provinces in Africa and South America.

The Reverend John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, says the break was not only over the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson. He says broad disagreements over scripture stretched back to the 1960s, with the Episcopal leadership becoming "looser and looser in terms of the range of theological thinking" as well as "the range of what is acceptable morally."

More here-

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/religion/Episcopal-Church-Breakaway-Anglicans-Fight-over-Property-141613123.html