From The Washington Post-
It's not pretty to see people fight about property.
The three-year-old legal dispute over nine Virginia churches is no exception, with the credentials of Anglican conservative priests being yanked by the Episcopal Church and conservatives threatening Episcopal leaders with trespass if found on the disputed properties. All this happened after the congregations, mostly in Northern Virginia, voted in 2006-2007 to break away from the Episcopal Church, which conservative congregants believe has strayed dangerously from Christianity.
Since the votes (which launched the legal cases), the small groups of people in some of the churches who wanted to remain Episcopalians have met in other churches and in coffee shops, waiting for the case to be resolved. Today the Virginia Supreme Court ruled against the conservatives, but the case will likely go on for months or years more.
The emotional ante got upped by the small Episcopal groups today, when the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia asked the Anglicans, who control the disputed properties: Can we share?
An attempt for both groups to use the disputed buildings didn't go well just after the votes, when the conservatives were trying to establish clear ownership (in court and in the court of public opinion) and said no. John Yates, rector of the large, prestigious Falls Church and a global leader of traditional Anglicans, said the refusal was only because it was hard to coordinate worship times. Then the conservatives sent diocesan officials a letter threatening them with trespass arrest if they came on the property.
More here-
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2010/06/what_happens_if_warring_anglicans_wind_up_in_the_same_buildings.html
1 comment:
Jim, I don't think this article is accurate at all. What I recall is that in fact both Truro and TFC had in place the choice for those in the parish to worship with an Episcopal priest. Both at TFC and at Truro an Episcopal clergyman was identified to lead those services but it was Bisohp Lee who said that if those Episcopal clergy led Episcopal worship at Truro or TFC they would be deposed.
At Truro we recently opened our church to a local (and liberal) Episcopal rector of a small Episcopal Church to conduct a wedding in our main church.
As far as I know we continue to be willing to have an TEC congregation worship in either the TFC historic chapel or the Truro chapel. It was the former diocesan bishop who prohibited Episcopal clergy from presiding at our parishes.
-Mary
Post a Comment