A Fairfax County judge ruled in favor of a breakaway Anglican parish on Tuesday, giving conservative Anglicans another win in a long and bitter property battle with the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
Circuit Judge Randy Bellows ruled that a $1.2 million parcel of property does indeed belong to Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., one of the 11 churches sued by The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over the control of property.
The land was originally bought by Christ the Redeemer, a church plant of Truro Church, but was given to Truro after the conservative congregations voted to leave The Episcopal Church in 2006, citing the national church's departure from Christian orthodoxy and traditional Anglicanism.
Bellows ruled that the land, sought by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, was properly deeded to Truro Church trustees.
"We are pleased with today’s ruling, which found that the intent of Christ the Redeemer Church, a former mission of Truro, was to give its property, a parcel of vacant land, to Truro Church. This ruling confirms that Truro Church owns the land, and that it is to be considered under the Virginia Division Statute, which our congregations have successfully invoked in our defense,” said Jim Oakes, vice chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, a network of conservative churches. Truro and Christ the Redeemer are members of ADV.
Tuesday's ruling adds to the consistent wins the breakaway churches have received since lawsuits were filed in 2007 over the ownership of millions of dollars of property. In April, Bellows issued a ruling that acknowledged a division within The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia and the global Anglican Communion and that the breakaway congregations in Virginia could thus pursue their case under the state's "division statute," which grants property to departing congregations when there is division within the denomination.
"The only way in which this Court could find a 'division' not to exist among the pertinent entities in this case is to define the term so narrowly and restrictively as to effectively define the term out of existence," Bellows had written in his summary, citing hundreds of churches across the country that are involved in disputes within The Episcopal Church.
Dozens of congregations, and now several entire dioceses, are voting to sever ties with The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – and place themselves under the oversight of more conservative branches overseas. The Episcopal Church widened rifts in 2003 when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop.
Earlier this month, the Diocese of Pittsburgh became the second diocese to approve secession from the national church and realignment with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.
The Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., was the first to leave the national church in 2006. Next month, two other dioceses are set to vote on leaving.
Meanwhile, trial in the Fairfax County Circuit Court continues this month with hearings on other disputed parcels of property.
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Brother Thomas, I don't know what kind of evidence you have, but let's be clear we have the benefit of 3,000 years of Biblical commentary on this story, in both Jewish and Christian sources. Among the classical Jewish tradition, where homosexuality is condemned, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was NEVER interpreted as sexual. The prophet Isaiah, for instance, in his first chapter goes into some detail describing the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah: for their idolatry, for being insensitive to the needs of widows and orphans, for accepting bribes, and engaging in meaningless ritual. The prophet Jeremiah (23:14) echoes this condemnation by declaring that the people of Jerusalem in his day had become like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah with their lies and wickedness. Ezekiel (16:49-50) declares the sin of Sodom to be their pride, their excess of food, and prosperous ease, and not caring for the poor and needy. Jesus himself says that their sin was not being hospitable to strangers (Matthew 10:14-5). Peter (2 Peter 2:6-8) declares that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were ungodly, unprincipled, and lawless. Josephus, the first century Jewish writer, declared that they hated foreigners and shunned any contact with them. The Talmud regularly condemned Sodom and Gomorrah for their lack of charity and hospitality towards others, and for ignoring the needs of the poor. Indeed in the first two thousand years of biblical commentary on this passage, there is only one reference to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as being sexual in nature. In the Epistle of Jude (1.7) in the New Testament, the writer declares that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in â
Brother Thomas,
is any of this evidence online? I'm not doubting you, I'd just love to have the info.
thx.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is true. I'm a Bilbical Archaeologist with the evidence, therefore any Christian that promotes homosexuality is NOT a true Christian.
Nice win for the right side. Hope lives.
Good see there are some Episcopalians that are not happy in Laodicia.