The Episcopalians Are Revolting!

Nothing personal, it's just that the Church of England's offspring in America is coming apart at the seams:

For about 30 years, the Episcopal Church has been one big unhappy family. Under one roof there were female bishops and male bishops who would not ordain women. There were parishes that celebrated gay weddings and parishes that denounced them; theologians sure that Jesus was the only route to salvation, and theologians who disagreed.

The Falls Church in Virginia has been voting on whether to secede from the Episcopal Church and is expected to announce results on Sunday.
Now, after years of threats, the family is breaking up.

As many as eight conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia are expected to announce today that their parishioners have voted to cut their ties with the Episcopal Church. Two are large, historic congregations that minister to the Washington elite and occupy real estate worth a combined $27 million, which could result in a legal battle over who keeps the property.

In a twist, these wealthy American congregations are essentially putting themselves up for adoption by Anglican archbishops in poorer dioceses in Africa, Asia and Latin America who share conservative theological views about homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture with the breakaway Americans.
“The Episcopalian ship is in trouble,” said the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, one of the two large Virginia congregations, where George Washington served on the vestry. “So we’re climbing over the rails down to various little lifeboats. There’s a lifeboat from Bolivia, one from Rwanda, another from Nigeria. Their desire is to help us build a new ship in North America, and design it and get it sailing.”

I've seen a lot of this in Southern California where a number of churches have split, and in one case I know of, the split-off congregation split again. That small community now has three Episcopal congregations instead of the one it used to have. Sometimes the original church keeps the property, and sometimes the split-off does. Lawsuits are underway.

It's a mess, but a battle that needs to be fought unless the church wants to finish sinking into moral obscurity.