Ex-Episcopal splinter group expanding, official says

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - An umbrella group for about a dozen former Episcopal congregations in Northern Virginia has grown larger as the national church continues to “alienate” its members, a top official with the splinter group said Thursday.

The Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA, has expanded to 60 congregations and more than 100 clergy in 20 states, Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns said during a speech at the Church of the Epiphany in Herndon. CANA, which is affiliated with a conservative archbishop in Nigeria, plans to consecrate four new bishops at the church Sunday.

“We have grown at a remarkable rate,” Minns said. “We have done so in the face of relentless opposition and some of the largest lawsuits ever mounted by the Episcopal Church against its own clergy and congregations.”

A spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia declined to comment Thursday.

The more conservative Northern Virginia congregations voted to split off in December 2006 after a growing ideological feud with the national Episcopal body, intensified by the consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire four years ago.

The churches, which include Truro in Fairfax and the Falls Church in Falls Church, remain embroiled in a legal battle with the Diocese of Virginia over millions of dollars’ worth of property.

Both sides appear dug in for a protracted legal fight that likely will hinge on the meaning of a section of Virginia code laying out how to resolve disputes over church real estate. Lawyers argued the meaning of the “division statute” in Fairfax County Circuit Court last month, and a judge is expected to rule early next year on whether the law applies in the case.

The same battle looks to be playing out across the country. The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, Calif., is expected to vote Saturday to split from the national body in protest of what it calls the church’s rejection of “the biblical standards of morality.”

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who heads the U.S. denomination, responded in a letter this week urging the diocese to reconsider.

The Associated Press contributed to this story

wflook@dcexaminer.com

Advertisement