From Virginia-The Rev. John Ohmer, who for seven years led the recovery of the congregation of the historic Falls Church Episcopal from its many years of exile, held his final service there last Sunday, departing for a new position in Asheville, North Carolina. Over 400 attended his last service and a reception held after.
When Ohmer came onto the scene at the church in September 2012, the property had just been reclaimed by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia from a more than six year occupation by defectors who’d voted to leave the denomination in December 2005, but then continued to occupy the property. They voted to leave in large part protesting the Episcopal denomination’s election of an openly-gay bishop in 2003.
During those years of occupation, whose claim to the property after years of litigation was denied by the Virginia Supreme Court and then went unheard by the U.S. Supreme Court, a small remnant of “continuing Episcopalians” persisted, first meeting in the living room of a lay member and then invited to worship in the fellowship hall of the Falls Church Presbyterian Church across the street.
More here-
https://fcnp.com/2019/10/31/f-c-episcopals-healing-rector-leaves-after-7-years-of-growth/
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