Part 1 - A New Beginning

It was an Advent Sunday like any other. The priests and acolytes filed in to the sounds of choir and organ lifting Christmas praises to the heavens. The cross proceeded in front of them, a reminder to the overflowing room of the reason they gathered together.

John Yates stood to welcome his congregation to the service of lessons and carols. He then made reference to the results of a church vote, gesturing to the television crews waiting in the upper corner of the church.

The crews would have to wait. Yates explained that they would announce the congregational decision at the end of the service.

It was December 17, 2006.

The vote would determine whether or not Yates’ congregation, The Falls Church of Falls Church, Va., would disaffiliate with The Episcopal Church in favor of the greater Anglican Communion. It would be the culmination of more than three years of debate, and the beginning of a property dispute that went to trial Nov. 13, 2007.

The Episcopal Church brought suit against ten Virginia churches last January over their church property after the churches voted to secede over doctrinal issues. The Falls Church was among them, with 90% of the eligible church body voting to break communion.

The Falls Church was established in 1732 as an offshoot of Truro Church, another seceding church located in Fairfax, Va. It is one of the largest churches in the Diocese of Virginia, and existed as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion before the creation of The Episcopal Church after the Revolutionary War. The Episcopal Church makes up only 3% of those in the world who affiliate with the Anglican Communion; missionaries have spread Anglicanism not just in the West, but also to Africa and Asia.

The central issue for the seceding churches is the place and authority of the Bible in church practice. Specifically, the churches are concerned with the election of Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual man, as a bishop in 2003 and the election of Katherine Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop, the highest Episcopalian religious authority. Schori has publicly broken with biblical teaching by asserting that there is more than one method of attaining salvation, ignoring the biblical principle of Jesus Christ as the only means through which one can approach God.

Yates referred to these issues as symptoms of a bigger problem in his statement “Can Two Walk Together, Except They Be Agreed?” from June 2006. Though Yates has sought reconciliation with the Diocese of Virginia and Virginia Bishop Peter Lee, he stated in this document that the time might come when the church would have to choose between their beliefs and staying in the denomination for tradition’s sake.

Yates sought reconciliation until the Episcopal General Convention in June 2006, when Schori was elected as presiding bishop and the convention failed to pass a resolution affirming the Bible as the supreme authority over the church.

For Yates, the tide had turned. These decisions deepened the rift, and the time had come to consider affiliating with the wider Anglican body who had previously affirmed the stance of The Falls Church.

The churches banded together and wrote a protocol for secession, which was endorsed by Lee until Dec. 1 when it became clear that the churches may actually vote to leave.

In his sermon that December Sunday, Yates remarked that while he bears “no ill will” toward Schori or The Episcopal Church, “when two groups have irreconcilable differences, the pastoral thing to do is find a gracious way to separate.”

The Diocese of Virginia brought suit despite these efforts, claiming an interest in the property of the church. However, The Falls Church has argued correctly its right to keep the property according to the Virginia Division Statute, Virginia Code § 57-9, which recognizes the right of congregations to keep their property when separating from a divided denomination or diocese.

The Falls Church has the legal right to secede from their mainline denomination if they are confronted with an irreconcilable difference. Further, they have a right to their property under Virginia law. The following articles will examine these issues in greater depth as we await the decision of the Fairfax County Circuit Court.