Facing an appeal filed this week to the Virginia Supreme Court of decisions made in their favor at the circuit court level last year, defectors from the Episcopal Church, USA, occupying the historic Falls Church property downtown in the City of Falls Church, are asking parishioners for permission to loot the church's building fund to pay for a legal defense.
In a letter to contributors to the so-called "Southgate Building Fund," leaders among the defectors, now aligned with the Council of Anglicans in North America (CANA), obtained this week by the News-Press, are asking for authorization to redirect the contributions to "defending our congregation and its property, and our sister (defecting-ed.) congregations in the Anglican District of Virginia against the lawsuits initiated against us by the Episcopal Church."
In an ironic twist, contributors to the "Southgate Fund," set up for purposes of funding the demolition of the long-vacant Southgate Shopping Center and construction of a new "parish life center" on the site, include a number of former Falls Church Episcopal members against whom the defectors' legal defense is being mounted.
"This is outrageous," one such member wrote to the News-Press, noting that she and her husband, and about 25-30 others expelled from the Falls Church property by the defectors, "who in good faith donated money to help rebuild the Southgate property, will have their money used against them."
http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4334:church-defectors-seek-to-divert-building-funds-to-legal-defense&catid=13:news-stories&Itemid=76
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