EL PASO, TX ”“ (October 27, 2008) ”“ The vestry of St. Francis on the Hill Episcopal Church, following a vote this week by members of its congregation, has separated from the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande and The Episcopal Church of the USA.

The action to officially separate from The Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) comes in the wake of over four years of discussions and meetings between St. Francis’s church and The Episcopal Church, as well as with the TEC’s governing body for this Episcopal Church region, the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande. A number of other former Episcopal USA Churches in the U.S. have left the TEC in the past year, including the former St. Clement Episcopal Church in El Paso.

Ron Munden, a St. Francis vestry member who has been involved in the talks since they began, said the separation was mandated by the congregation and ratified by the vestry, “To preserve what the people of St. Francis feel is not only our constitutional freedom but our legal right to worship as true Christians, following the basic tenets and canons on which the original Episcopal Church of the USA was founded, in a church property that we own.”

The Episcopal Church has been in turmoil for a number of years, with what many Episcopalians see as a deviation from the Bible and changes of policies and church laws to fit current cultural moods, rather than holding fast to strong scriptural beliefs. The TEC in the U.S. is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which remains at odds with the TEC for a number of those changes and other differences. The rift came to a head in 2003, when the Episcopal Church of the USA consecrated an openly gay bishop and sanctioned same-sex marriages.

“Unfortunately, today in our Church,” said Munden, “many Episcopalians believe that the Church’s leadership has wavered from the core values of Christ’s teachings, creating confusion and division among parishes, dioceses, and the Church hierarchy itself.” Munden added, “Many of the churches within the TEC hung on throughout 2008, thinking that the Church would change, or at least allow them to practice their faith in the traditional Anglican manner, which we believe is founded on scripture. It is apparent that is not going to happen, and The Episcopal Church in the USA has firmly stated they are doing what they think is right — they are not changing. As a result, some churches and even whole dioceses are leaving. For us at St. Francis, we feel we cannot worship and pray in an environment that deviates from traditional church teachings, so we have broken away.”

The Rev. Dr. Felix Orji, Rector of St. Francis on the Hill, explained that his church has been concerned for some time that the Episcopal Church has strayed from such core doctrines as, “The uniqueness of Christ as God and the only Savior of the World, the authority and primacy of Scripture, and the death of Jesus Christ as the only path to salvation.” Fr, Orji also said, “What we have seen over the past three years is a concerted, planned effort by the TEC to ”˜go someplace’ that is not in line with our thinking here. The Episcopal Church is in serious transition, and frankly, we believe that no matter how the TEC tries to explain it away, their beliefs today are vastly opposed to long-accepted teachings of the Bible.” Father Orji noted that the controversies surrounding the changes taking place in The Episcopal Church have caused a major decline in church membership. In 1965, the Episcopal Church in the U.S. had 3.5 million members. Today, that’s down to 2.4 million. “We even know of a number of dioceses that are leaving the TEC. What I have feared for some time is becoming a reality,” Fr. Orji said. “The Episcopal Church as we once knew it has changed so drastically to appeal to modern social and cultural trends that it is now unacceptable to many of its core membership.” He added, “If they are striving to become a popular church for today’s trends and culture, they may very well achieve that. But it will be a much smaller church. The Episcopal Church of the USA today has little resemblance remaining to the foundations of the original Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion.”

St. Francis on the Hill church leaders say The Episcopal Church of the USA and the Rio Grande Diocese may try to claim a right on the St. Francis church and property. “We have the title and deed to our property,” said Munden. Since the Episcopal Church passed a Canon, or church law, in the 1970’s that said all Episcopal churches’ properties were to be held in trust by the Diocese for the U.S. Episcopal Church, St. Francis on the Hill has denied this claim in official notices to the TEC. “As early as 2004, we let it be known that our by-laws clearly outlined how and why we owned our own property,” said Munden. “We built this church with money from our parishioners ”“ not one dime came from the Episcopal Church or from the Diocese. This church and grounds belong to St. Francis on the Hill, and The Episcopal Church clearly knows of our unique situation here and our position on this matter.”

Fr. Orji said that his congregation has a great sense of relief now that the transition away from the Episcopal Church has taken place. “This has been a long ordeal,” said the minister. “After years of debate, communications to and from the Church and Diocese, and waiting, this controversy is finally over. The membership has elected to follow a path they believe in, and the fact that we have taken those positive steps is comforting to us all. I think collectively, as an independent Church, we are more peaceful.” Fr. Orji added that the fight may not be over for the Episcopal Church, but it is for his congregation. “We made our choice. We are a church that will now worship and carry on our ministries without encumbrance. The TEC may not view it that way, but we hope they do. It is time for all of us to get away from politics that don’t belong in our church and back to the real meaning of Christianity and Christ’s teachings.”

Jeffrey Altman will be ordained an Anglican priest today in a ceremony that reflects Central New York’s role in the nationwide growth of a separate Anglican church in the United States.

Altman will lead Sunday services at Westside Anglican Fellowship, a Geddes congregation of about 25 people who began worshipping together after their former congregation, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Syracuse, split from the local Episcopal Diocese. They meet at Syracuse Vineyard Church.

It is one of dozens of breakaway congregations that have started Anglican communities in the five years since the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop….

Read the whole article.

Leaving the Episcopal Church was about more than just leaving a denomination, Gene Prevatt says.

It was also about rejecting “the corruption of the church.”

“One does not have to look too far to see the continuing erosion of our freedoms, rising paganism, and an increasing hostility to the Gospel,” Prevatt wrote in an April church newsletter to fellow members of Christ Church in Savannah.

“God has called us out, and to those who are moving away, we have said, ‘No. We will not go with you.’ This is our turning point in history.”

For Christ Church in Savannah, that turning point began just over a year ago when leaders voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church, claiming the denomination has failed to honor the authority of the scriptures.

Read it all.

Two small parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia have quit the denomination because of objections to gay ordination and have joined a like-minded group of dissident churches based in Northern Virginia.

The break away Anglican District of Virginia announced Friday that Christ Church in Emporia and Grace Church in Purdy had become members. The district now includes 23 parishes that have cut ties with the Episcopal Church.

Read it all.

One of the most interesting points was that both sets of lawyers argued that under either legal principle, those being principle of government which would favor a hierarchical denomination and neutral principles which would favor the individual church, their side should prevail. I must admit that between the legal argument and the interruptions (I could not completely shut the world out) I had trouble following why the denomination should win under neutral principles. It may also have something to do with the weakness of the argument because it was clear that at least a couple of justices had trouble buying it. What was more interesting, and has a certain degree of logic, was the individual church’s argument that they still win under principle of government. The argument was that the actual church government was not the Episcopal Church but the Worldwide Anglican Communion which they have not left but are still under its governance. This clearly is not an argument that can be used by a church trying to leave with contested property from the PC(USA).

A point where the denomination’s lawyers did better than the congregations’ lawyer was regarding the law in other states. When the justices asked what the status is in other states (I think this was a “never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to”) the congregations’ lawyer answered “mixed.” The denomination’s lawyers answered that other states have favored principle of government. (It is my understanding that there are few similar cases which have made it all the way to the state supreme courts in this current round but that the government principle has been favored so far.)

Read it all.

The area’s largest Episcopal parish plans to split from the Diocese of Western New York and leave behind the Town of Tonawanda church buildings it has called home for 48 years.

Members of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church will become the first local congregation to break ties with the Episcopal Church since the contentious 2003 ratification of an openly homosexual bishop by the national governing body.

“The gay issue is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said the Rev. Arthur W. Ward Jr., rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church. “The Episcopal Church from our perspective has turned its back on the Lord, it’s turned its back on scripture and the word of God.”

Read it all.

At Lambeth, TEC’s bishops were (whether deliberately, or negligently—it makes no difference) giving out wrong information about the lawsuits they are involved in with their own parishes. The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt. Rev. Jonathan Gledhill, in the Province of Canterbury, reports on his Weblog about the meeting of his indaba group on August 2 (Day 18 of the Lambeth Conference):

In the discussion afterwards we are told that the US House of Bishops has regretted for the hurt it has caused and its lack of consultation and has issued a public apology – though no one has the exact wording. We are also told that the Canadians have voted against same-sex blessings – though two dioceses are pressing their bishops to change that. We are told that in the lawsuits in America between parishes and their dioceses it is the dioceses who are the defendants and the conservative parishes who are the accusers.

Since it is well known to many individual Episcopalians who have been involved in the many lawsuits instigated and still pending at all levels here that the statement I have put into boldface type above is simply not the case, it did not take long for a blog reader familiar with the details in Virginia to inform the good Bishop of the facts on the ground there. The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon put the information up on his site at TitusOneNine, and it elicited this comment from a reader:

In the interest of being scrupulously fair: this just refers to the Virginia situation, is it possible there are other parishes/dioceses where the reasserters are suing?

Well, let us be scrupulously fair, and see just what the facts are. The Episcopal Church and/or one of its Dioceses played the role of plaintiff—the party who initiates a case in court, by filing a complaint—in bringing the pending or former lawsuits I have listed below over Church property and assets in the courts of the United States. This list makes no claim to be complete; it comprises just the ones I have read about (I have listed them alphabetically by State, and not chronologically):

Read it all and, yes, do take the time to look up the references.

I was reading with interest your Lambeth weblog (to which I had been directed by the weblog of Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the diocese of South Carolina), and found that on Day 18, where some marvelous and encouraging steps toward consensus and agreement had been made regarding the proposed moratoria, that in your indaba group also:

“we are told that in the lawsuits in America between parishes and their dioceses it is the dioceses who are the defendants and the conservative parishes who are the accusers”.

I am sorry to tell you that you have apparently been lied to.

I would direct your attention to this summary document:

http://anglicandistrictofvirginia.org/content/view/79/41/

which discusses (albeit in a press release on behalf of the eleven parishes being sued by the Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church) the facts of the case(s) and the determination of the court on two occasions. Perhaps the most pertinent bit of information from that is its first sentence:

“The 11 churches sued by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia celebrated today’s Fairfax County Circuit Court ruling that confirms the constitutionality of Virginia Division Statute (Virginia Code § 57-9). The 11 churches named in the lawsuit are members of the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV).”

On the website on which that background document is found, you will also find links (in the right-hand margin) to many of the associated court documents. Major newspapers in the adjoining regions, including the Washington Post (Washington, DC), the Washington Times (Washington, DC), and the Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) have carried numerous articles as well as editorials concerning the cases, which are widely accessible via the internet. I am sure that you will be able to locate these with no trouble but if you would like I could certainly find some of them and send links to them along to you. It is likely that additional articles will appear in those and other newspapers, as the case will likely be appealed by TEC (and, unfortunately, the diocese). Some of the sadder details of the story can be discovered by reading a few of the introductory documents, including the fact that TEC intervened in and demanded an end to the process of amicable negotiation being followed by the diocese with the parishes, shortly after the investiture of K. Jefferts-Schori.

It is unfortunate that various officeholders in TEC persist in spreading untruths about the basic facts involved in these cases.

I am sorry that they attempted to deceive you, and hope that this will be of help to you in assessing their dependability in various of their other claims and statements.

Please do feel free to contact me regarding this.

Thanks to blog reader LINC for passing this long. It is really very sad to see this kind of misinformation being spread by the same TEC leaders who themselves complain of misinformation! Let me say it again–be a Berean (do you know the reference). Make sure to check the documentation carefully yourself–KSH.

For years, worshippers at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Livonia patiently put up with their diocese as it adopted a series of liberal changes that clashed with biblical tradition. But the breaking point came in 2003, when the Episcopal Church — with the approval of the local diocese — consecrated an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

After a testy meeting with Episcopal leaders, about two-thirds of the 300-member congregation bolted in 2006, leaving a church many of them grew up in. Two years later, they said they have no regrets.

“It just wasn’t a Christian church anymore,” explained Chris Darnell, 41, of Northville.

Those words reflect a schism playing out within the Anglican Communion — the largest Protestant body in the world — as it faces an identity crisis that threatens to split its 77 million members. Four congregations in Michigan have broken away in recent years from the Episcopal Church, the Anglican body in the United States that has 87 churches in Michigan, with about 24,000 members.

Read it all.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will be told this week to stop conservative clergy leaving their national churches and becoming bishops in other countries.

Dr Rowan Williams is to be lobbied by liberals who are dominating the ten-yearly Lambeth Conference, because more than 200 traditionalist bishops have boycotted the gathering as a result of divisions on gay clergy and women bishops.

He will be told that the process of conservative American clergy opting out of their national body and becoming bishops in African and South American churches goes against tradition and must be stopped.

Dr Williams will also be urged to prevent orthodox Anglicans, who believe the Bible teaches that homosexuality is wrong, from setting up a new province in North America to rival the Episcopal Church of the USA, which triggered the current crisis by electing the first openly gay bishop in the worldwide Communion.

Read it all. So, let us get this straight. None of these transfers to other Provinces in the Anglican Communion would be occurring if the Episcopal Church had not done in 2003 what the Anglican Communion in many different ways asked the Episcopal Church not to do. And, of course, what they did was against tradition.

Also, during the 2003 debate, any outside urging or attempted persusasion, or, even more strongly, intervention by Anglican authorities was seen to be an inappropriate transgression of provincial “autonomy.”

Now, however, that something is happening that the Episcopal Church leadership does not like, what is said leadership doing? Appealing to tradition, and asking for outside influence and intervention from Anglican Communion authorities. Got it? Pot, please meet kettle–KSH.

(Press Release)

The congregation of Christ Church, An Anglican Community for the Four Corners, has unanimously affirmed its vestry’s decision to come under the spiritual oversight of the Anglican Church of Uganda. Bishop John Guernsey of Dale City, Virginia, will serve as the new bishop for Christ Church.

Christ Church joins the former Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, The Rt. Rev. Terence Kelshaw, the Church of the Epiphany in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and St. Peters Anglican Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, in recently coming under the oversight of the Church of Uganda.

Christ Church was established in February 2007 by a significant core of lay leaders, formerly with St. John’s Episcopal Church, Farmington, New Mexico. By March of that year, other lay leaders, vestry members and the pastoral staff from St. John’s Episcopal Church joined this core group. The Rev. Carl Brenner, Rector of St. John’s Church for almost eight years, was called as Sr. Pastor for Christ Church in July of 2007. Deborah Gregory, former Minister of Worship for St. John’s, was also called to serve as the Lay Pastor for Worship and Administration at Christ Church.

While oversight by the Province of Uganda is considered temporary until an orthodox structure for Anglicans is formed in the United States, Christ Church is eager to build an even stronger partnership with the Church of Uganda.

Along with the churches from Fort Collins and Cloudcroft, Christ Church has been teamed with the Karamoja Diocese in Moroto, Uganda. The poverty and strife of the area provide many opportunities for Christ Church to give support to this host diocese. Yet Christ Church members know they will receive far more in the exchange.

Six members of Christ Church traveled to Uganda on a Solar Light Mission’s trip in August of 2005. They were immediately captivated by the joy of Ugandan Christians, who transcend lives of poverty and disease through a vibrant faith that they quickly share with everyone they meet. That faith is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the hope and guidance of Holy Scripture as God’s inspired word for the life and ministry of the Church.

Although the parish leadership is seeking property to establish a physical presence in the community, Christ Church has found a temporary home at Maranatha Fellowship Church, 618 West Arrington, Farmington. Services are being held at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday evenings in the Anglican tradition, with a twist that involves strong lay participation and contemporary praise and worship. For more information regarding the ministry of Christ Church, please contact us by email at christchurch4corners [at] mail [dot] com

Speaking of the members who left, [Bishop Dorsey] Henderson said, “They are acting out of conscience, and I respect that.”

The primary causes he’s heard for their decision to leave is that some reject the current presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and disagreement over the consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

[The Rev. George] Gray said human sexuality is of minor significance and that the issue is essentially about the authority of Holy Scripture.

He said the church has taken positions and made policies inconsistent with Holy Scripture and is more concerned with canon law than biblical law.

“I feel the Episcopal Church is leading people away (from), rather than to, Christ,” Gray said.

He said hundreds of Episcopalians, perhaps thousands in the area, have left the Episcopal Church and are attending other churches.

Those who remain, he said, believe they can fight to make a difference.

He’s come to the conclusion reform is not possible.

Read it all.

[Jefferts] Schori is quoted as saying: “Our heritage and context shape our theology. The ways in which we understand Scripture and appropriate gospel response to social realities are shaped both by our roots and our current circumstances.”

This is in direct contrast to the warning from William Connor Magee, who said to his assembled clergy in 1872: “Once let [the church] regard it as her main duty to ‘conform herself to the spirit of the age’ and the prophetic spirit will have died out of her. She will no longer ‘cry aloud and spare not’, she will no longer dare to speak the word of the Lord, ‘whether men will hear or whether they will forbear.'”

Rather than addressing the theological issues that threaten to divide the church, the denomination has tried to maintain order through intimidation: filing lawsuits against parishes that would seek realignment; attempting to depose bishops who hold to the traditional views of the church; and issuing a series of strongly worded letters from Schori to bishops across the country.

It seems increasingly evident that the only sensible outcome should be the eventual creation of a second Anglican province within the United States comprising those parishes and dioceses that have chosen to “walk apart” from the Episcopal Church.

Read it all.

The Province of the Southern Cone has begun work to amend its Constitution and Canons to permit parishes and dioceses outside of South America to affiliate with the church.

In an address to the Diocese of Fort Worth on May 3, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina said his province had agreed to accept the diocese of San Joaquin into the South American church as a “pastoral” and interim response to the divisions within the US Episcopal Church. Work was now underway to alter the church’s constitution, removing language that limited membership to dioceses located in South America.

The “Anglican Communion in the United States has been hijacked,” Bishop Venables said, by a liberal clique that is less concerned with theological integrity than with power. They do not “mind what happens as long as they control it,” he said according to a report prepared by the diocese’s communications officer. Bishop Venables told Fort Worth that the question before them was “whether or not you can stand with a group of people who have denied that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Bible is the Word of God.”

He conceded that the invitation to the Diocese of San Joaquin made following its December decision to quit the Church and affiliate with the Southern Cone was irregular. However, “if we don’t do something,” he said, we would be “complicit” in their oppression.

Read it all.

Read it all.

The Rev. Stan Gerber has preached his last sermon at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tomball. On Sunday, the Episcopal priest, most of his staff and an expected majority of churchgoers will worship in a local junior high school.

Their departure is the latest casualty in the ongoing crisis in the Episcopal Church and the doctrinal debate between conservatives and liberals over sexuality and biblical interpretation. Nationwide, about 55 churches and a California diocese also have left the national denomination over its liberal stands.

From an “orthodox” point of view, Gerber said, “The culture has begun to influence the church, rather than the church influencing the culture.”

Conservative Episcopalians point to 2003 as the breaking point. That’s when V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest living with his male partner, was confirmed as the bishop of New Hampshire by the church’s General Assembly.

Read it all.

TEC’s Bishops who are taking these extreme actions maintain they are simply defending their diocesan territories. The problem, they say, is that when a priest withdraws from their jurisdiction to join, say, the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, he or she does not leave and go to Argentina, but stays and conducts services (say) in the Diocese of Los Angeles, just as before. Pardon my impertinence, but so what? They cannot prevent that from happening, can they, with all of their thunderbolts? How do their threats and depositions change the situation by one whit for the better? It is the souls of fellow Christians that are at stake here, not medieval concepts of territoriality. (Depositions do not prevent the breakup of diocesan territory; they most likely exacerbate it.) Given that realization, one might think that TEC’s bishops could take the Christian route, and issue letters dimissory . . . .

In all of these inhibitions and subsequent depositions, we see the results of treating the joining of other provinces of the Anglican Communion as equivalent to “abandoning the communion of the Episcopal Church.” What TEC and her bishops are saying by these actions is that the only communion that matters to TEC is a communion subject to TEC’s Constitution and Canons—the rest of the Anglican Communion can go hang, for all the comity that TEC cares to show to it. And as for the care of souls—the less said, the better.

TEC’s Bishops have now rewritten Canons IV.9 and IV.10 so that they equate “abandonment of communion” not only with joining the Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox Church, but also with joining the Anglican Church of Uganda, or the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. This turns the canons into measures like those of the Anglican Church of Canada, which do not differentiate between joining another religious body that is in communion with the Canadian Church, and one that is not—both acts are equally subject to inhibition and deposition for “abandonment”. (Most recently, the Canadian canons were used in this way to threaten the 82-year-old evangelist Dr. J. I. Packer with inhibition.)

We should truly be cautious before proceeding down Canada’s path. What is happening in front of our eyes with all of the inhibitions and depositions is the balkanization of the Anglican Communion, in violation of the very principles of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral which lie at its heart. Soon, each province of the Communion will have two classes of clergy: those who are licensed to practice in that province, and those who cannot, but who are licensed elsewhere, even though they live and minister in the province in question. Once that happens, what can one say is left of the Anglican Communion? It will have become a tradition, in Hamlet’s sad words, that is “more honor’d in the breach than the observance . . .”.

Read it all.

The Rev. Neil Lebhar, one of the deposed priests, said the ministers can both still draw their pensions and contribute to retirement funds created for ministers who have left the denomination.

Howard said he was merely making official what the ministers have done by aligning themselves with Anglican bishops. He inhibited, or suspended, the clergy six months before deposing them to give them time to reconsider.

“They did not desire to remain in the Episcopal Church and this just makes it official,” Howard said. “Not one of them came to me and said: ‘I want to be an Episcopalian.’ ”

However, the deposed clergy take exception with the claim they have abandoned communion, Lebhar said. They are remaining true to Scripture and to Anglicanism by quitting the Episcopal denomination, said Lebhar, rector of the Anglican Church of the Redeemer in Jacksonville.

“It’s a little bit like someone divorcing you for being unfaithful when they have been unfaithful,” said Lebhar, chairman of the Jacksonville-based Anglican Alliance, which represents more than 20 congregations in North Florida and South Georgia.

Read it all.

The situation became untenable at Good Shepherd, Fr. Gerber said, after the House of Bishops’ meeting in New Orleans last September. In October, a majority of the vestry insisted on having the congregation participate in a discernment process over its future. Instead of the more-typical 40-day process, Fr. Gerber said he and the diocese worked out a lengthier version that originally was supposed to last beyond the election of a bishop coadjutor next month. A parish referendum scheduled to occur April 13-20 was terminated early, Fr. Gerber said, after the diocese insisted on knowing which way he intended to vote.

Fr. Gerber said he anguished over his decision, which was made even more difficult because he believes he was treated fairly by the diocese and because of the many friendships he has built during 19 years of ordained ministry. Good Shepherd dedicated a $2-million parish hall on Palm Sunday. Fr. Gerber said the diocese offered to provide the parish temporary financial assistance if the loss of members and income after the vote put the Episcopal congregation at risk of default on the mortgage payments.

In the end, Fr. Gerber said he realized he had more in common theologically with Anglicans outside The Episcopal Church than he did with those inside it. Instead of a parish referendum and more consultation, he and the diocese have agreed on a short announcement during Sunday services about the new congregation. St. Timothy’s Anglican Church will hold its first service the following Sunday in a nearby high school auditorium.

Read it all.

The clergy and congregation of the Episcopal mission Church of Ascension in Cloudcroft have split from the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande and joined the Anglican Province of Uganda.

The diocese said this week its trustees and standing committee were told of the decision last week.

Read it all.

Update: A Diocesan press release on this matter is here.

“I’m looking forward to the special celebration of the Holy Eucharist and seeing new and old faces,” Whiting said. “The whole day will be kind of fun.”

As the congregation looks back on its long history, Whiting said it also looks to the future and potential outreach programs. The church is currently working towards various projects including a literacy education program and a community closet.

“The Episcopal church, I think, is a wonderful blend of Catholicism and Protestant,” Whiting said. “We allow people to make up their own minds about just about everything.”

“The Episcopal church is very inclusive in terms of color, sexual identity and alternative lifestyles. One of the things we are going to work on is making this a safe haven for GLBT people.”

Read it all.

“We’re all Christians in this,” said the Rev. Roger Ames, the rector of St. Luke’s, who is a suffragan bishop in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. “Surely there’s a better way to serve the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings than to do this type of damage to one another.”

Several dioceses have filed lawsuits seeking to get back land and buildings from parishes that have left the U.S. Episcopal Church to join other Anglican groups.

Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns of the Herndon, Va.-based Convocation of Anglicans said that by choosing costly litigation over negotiations, the Cleveland lawsuit is part of “a national effort on the part of the Episcopal Church to basically crush any dissenting voice.”

Read it all.

Given that there are new articles and press releases, etc. being released frequently, and the potential significance of the story, we thought it would be helpful to provide a roundup of all the Virginia court ruling links in one place. We’ll keep updating this periodically:

Primary Source documents: Court Ruling and Press Releases or Letters

The Court Ruling: [Stand Firm has a PDF here]

The Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) Press Release:

The Diocese of Virginia Press Release:

The CANA Press Release:

The Presiding Bishop’s Statement:

A letter from the Rev. John Yates, rector of the Falls Church

A letter from Virginia Bishop Peter James Lee

Articles / Analysis / Commentary: (in the order we came across them)

The main T19 comment thread is here

Stand Firm — long comment thread is here.

Washington Times:
Va. judge sides with breakaway Episcopal parishes, By Julia Duin

Washington Post:
Judge’s Initial Decision Favors Breakaway Churches, By Michelle Boorstein
[note BabyBlue has an important bit of background on this article here (Patrick Getlein used to be the Communications Director for the Diocese of VA)]

Ruth Gledhill (The London Times)

Christianity Today:
Big Win for Va.’s Breakaway Anglican Parishes in Property Fight, by Sheryl Henderson Blunt

Episcopal News Service:
Virginia judge issues preliminary ruling on application of state statute, by Mary Frances Schjonberg

“The Lead” (one of the primary reappraising TEC blogs)

Thinking Anglicans (a reappraising blog from the UK) which provides a roundup of links and some commentary

The Living Church: Favoring Parishes, Virginia Judge Cites ”˜Division of First Magnitude’

Reuters: US judge rules for Episcopal Church secessionists, By Michael Conlon

The Institute on Religion and Democracy

Brad Drell (Louisiana attorney and Anglican Blogger at Drell’s Descants)

David Trimble (an attorney in KY, and Anglican blogger at Still on Patrol)

Hills of the North (a Georgia attorney)

Bishop David Anderson of the AAC (via Anglican Mainstream)

———
Note: BabyBlue’s blog is, of course, one of the best places to keep up with the news as it happens, since BabyBlue is directly connected to the story, being a member of Truro, one of the ADV congregations.

Feel free to add other links in the comments. We’ll update this as we are able.

Read them both carefully.

Update:
There’s a second article now online at Episcopal Life, which goes into more detail about the ruling and the legal strategy that TEC intends to pursue in the second portion of the trial in May.

Bishop Roger Ames is no longer a cleric in the Ohio Diocese of the Episcopal Church USA.

But he is a leader in the global Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church USA.

Then there’s the church that Ames pastors ”” St. Luke’s in Fairlawn. Its incorporation papers list its name as St. Luke’s Anglican Church and Ames as pastor. Diocesan records, however, show that it is St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and that the pastorate is vacant.

The status of both Ames and the church is an indication of the level of confusion in the denomination and of what might very well be the beginning of a new Anglican province in North America.

Both Ames and Bishop Martyn Minns, the missionary bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), say an effort is under way to unify the theologically conservative parishes that have broken away from the Episcopal Church.

”We’re trying to hold onto the traditional teachings of the church and stop the fragmentation that is going on across the country by bringing people together,” Minns said. ”We definitely have some real divisions (in the Episcopal Church) and we are trying to develop tight connections with the international church and the churches in this country.”

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At the conclusion of the diocesan convention Jan. 25-26 at St. James’ Church, Ormond Beach, Bishop Howe told a reporter for The Living Church that though exhausted, he was pleased with the negotiations.

“We are on the best of terms with all those leaving,” he said. “And we are committed to rebuilding where there have been losses.”

In his address to convention, Bishop Howe said the last three months had been the worst period of his life. However, amicable solutions had been reached with the members of the eight congregations who sought to withdraw from the diocese.

“There are those who simply have to leave The Episcopal Church for conscience sake,” he said. “I understand that. I don’t agree, but I don’t believe we should punish them. We shouldn’t sue them. We shouldn’t depose the clergy. Our brokenness is a tragedy. The litigation that is going on in so many places is a travesty. And although some seem to be trying to do so, I don’t think you can hold a church together by taking everybody you disagree with to court.”

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“My purpose is … to be pastorally supportive of these congregations and missions,” said [John] Guernsey, who hails from Falls Church, Va. “I’m coming to Midland to talk about the worth of sharing our faith. That’s what I’ll be preaching about.”

Leadership at Christ Church is looking forward with excitement to the visit.

“We’re thrilled that he has found time for us and our other two West Texas Anglican congregations so soon,” said the Rev. Tom Finnie, Christ Church rector. “We respect the fact that he is busy and cherish the time he is giving us.”

It’s evident that as the bishop for the American churches, he will have a growing task ahead of him. Soft-spoken and with a bookish look, the Yale graduate has seen the number of churches allied with Uganda skyrocket before, during and after his consecration.

In June 2007, the Ugandan church reported 26 American congregations. In September, the number had risen to 33. Now, the total is 44, Guernsey said.

There are many other American Anglican churches that have sought shelter and affiliation with other foreign churches, many in Africa and South America. Guernsey estimates that number to be more than 300.

Though it’s not the main purpose for his visit — “This is not a political trip at all,” he said — Guernsey is currently working toward a larger goal.

If all goes well, a new nationwide Anglican church composed of those that broke with the U.S. Episcopal Church will be formed, and all of the dissenting churches allied overseas will be released to the new structure.

“The congregations are eager to put the difficulties and church conflicts behind them,” he said.

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The Petaluma congregation that split from the Episcopal Church over the issue of homosexuality, taking a landmark downtown church with it, has rejected an offer to return the building, and the two sides appear headed to court, a local vestry member said Monday.

The impasse between St. John’s Anglican Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California grew from the national schism that began with the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003 and church support for same-sex unions.

Following the lead of several dozen congregations nationwide, St. John’s 240 members voted in 2006 to cut ties with the national organization, renaming itself an Anglican church while holding on to the 117-year-old complex.

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The only Episcopal congregation in Lake County to leave the national denomination over the issue of homosexuality and other doctrines has found a new home and ally in its quest to begin worshipping anew — a tiny Pentecostal congregation.

The Rev. Woodleigh Volland and an overwhelming majority of his congregation at St. Edward’s Episcopal Church departed the national Episcopal Church in late October but remained with the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican community.

The dissidents regrouped and formed a new church, Epiphany Celebration Anglican Church, but quickly found themselves with nowhere to worship or hold services.

“We had to move nearly the entire congregation and didn’t have anywhere to go,” said Volland, an ordained minister since 1990 and pastor at St. Edward’s for six years.

Four of the five staff members and 10 of 12 vestry members opted to leave along with 130 of the roughly 170 regular church worshippers, Volland said.

“We stepped out in faith and started completely over,” he said. “It was an extraordinarily difficult decision.”

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Feb. 3 will be a day of change and challenges for Grace Episcopal Church.

On that day, the Rev. Donald J. Curran will resign as rector of the historic church. The 12-member vestry board will follow. And so will several staff members, the musicians and a big chunk of the congregation.

Those leaving will make up a new church, Christ the King Anglican Church. Those staying will remain members of Grace Episcopal.

In recent years, many Episcopalians have been frustrated with the direction of The Episcopal Church (USA). They believe the church is losing its biblical and traditional roots and are upset with the church’s acceptance of gay clergy and blessing of same-sex unions. As a result, parishes across the country are leaving the denomination, which is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In October, Grace Episcopal and seven other parishes told Bishop John W. Howe, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, they wanted to leave the diocese and the national church.

Both groups at Grace said the split is sad and painful for the church, but are hopeful they can work things out like Christians. The plan, Curran said, is for both congregations to share the use of the church building for services until June 30. The new church also wants to negotiate a lease for the manse, the church?s office building on Fort King Street, as well as the rectory where Curran lives.

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