19 December 2006

The Church at The Falls

I do not, as a matter of common sense, comment on the inner workings of religious sects. Growing up in a secular era, and graduating from organized religion as a nominal, though lapsed, Unitarian. I am aware of the danger of treading on other people's Revealed Truth. The slightest deviation these days seems to result in mobs attacking places of publishing, worship, or both.

Being a sensible person, as most of us are, I simply ignore the issues that inflame so many and go about my affairs, oblivious to the clear and present danger that seems to confront so many around the world.

It is thus with some trepidation that I note that the Episcopal church up the road from Big Pink is in the forefront of a major act of secession.

That is not unprecedented here in Virginia, though we have only attempted it seriously once, and suffered the consequences. The Church at the Falls and Truro did too, though they were not directly responsible for fatally irritating the Federal Government downtown.

A little history is in order, if you will indulge me. The two churches are the venerable seats of the Anglican Church in Northern Virginia. Specifically, they are the two oldest and largest congregations thereof. These are not fringe churches or cults. At least one Supreme Court Justice worships at Truro, and there could be others. In resounding endorsement of local sensibilities and a rejection of the international Anglican establishment, the congregations of the have decided to cease their affiliation with England, and change allegiance to a Bishop in Nigeria.

The act boggles the mind, or at least mine, since I have been an occasional participant in the Anglican rite down through the years. In my defense, attendance was largely in the furtherance of family comity, a topic that I held in high regard. At least I did until irreconcilable differences caused a parting of the marital way.

That is not something to be taken lightly. The reason we attended Truro was simple. The social pedigree of the Anglican church there is impeccable. George Washington's father was a vestryman at the first church established by the Colonial General Assembly in 1732. He nominated the first regular rector of the parish in 1736. George Washington himself was appointed to the vestry in 1762.

There was plenty of game and undisturbed trees then. The name for the vast parish was Truro, and it covered the territory of Lord Fairfax's land grant from where the Marine base now sprawls at Quantico north and west across the Occoquan River to follow the rise of the Potomac River.

The “Falls Church" was named for its location in the wilderness near the first great falls of the Potomac, or the last ones, depending on which way you are going. In any event, it is where a the flood obeys the law of God and nature. With incredible urgency, the Potomac drops down the rocks toward the sea, and delivers its great fresh weight to the brackish Chesapeake and the salt sea beyond.

Eventually, a community grew up around the church, and the name “Falls Church” was adopted by the city, when it was incorporated in 1948.

Big Pink was just a real estate developer's dream then, but from my condo I can see the path by which the current position of my condo I could have seen Revolutionary troops march toward Alexandria, since the Falls Church was used as a recruiting station. Three generations later, the Union troops marched west to occupy Falls Church and the parish quarters further along in Fairfax City.

During the war, Fede4ral occupation troops used the church property as headquarters for various Union war departments. There is a sign outside Truro Church that commemorates a raid by Confederate guerrilla John S. Mosby who kidnapped Union General Edwin Stoughton out of bed in the middle of the night from the requisitioned rectory. Later, the Union forces razed the ecclesiastic complex in Fairfax city, and the Falls Church was used, by turns, as a hospital and a stable.

You can still see the repairs that were made after the troubles were over. 

The sense of injured righteousness that followed the defeat only amplified something that had been resident in the churches since the beginning. The Declaration of Independence was supposedly read to the bucolic Virginians from the steps of the Falls Church.

Something else was read from the church steps this weekend, though in a smaller way just as profound.

Pastor John Yates is a personable man of God with a steady smile and deep eyes. He was responsible for some of the wording. He attended the University of North Carolina, received his Masters of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his DD from the Fuller Theological Seminary. He has been ordained since 1972, and served congregations in New Jersey, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania prior to coming to The Falls Church in 1979.

He announced, with humility and love, in a joint press release, that The Falls Church and Truro Church had voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with The Episcopal Church in the U.S. and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA. Those in favor were in excess of 90% in both congregations. The members also voted to keep the real property of the churches, which is a bit more problematic.

The text of the operative resolution is interesting. I don't trust myself with interpreting other people's theology, so I will let the words speak for themselves: “Resolved…a division has occurred within the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, and the Diocese of Virginia; that The Episcopal Church has departed from the authority of the Holy Scriptures and from historic Christian teaching on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Savior of humankind… (we) shall sever denominational ties with The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia and affiliated with the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of churches under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Convocation of  Anglicans in North America, a branch of the Anglican Communion; and that the Vestry and trustees of The Falls Church are directed to take such actions as are necessary or appropriate to carry out these  resolutions, effective immediately.”

CANA is missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria and the Anglican District of Virginia. It  will provide oversight and a U.S.-based structure for these northern Virginia churches leaving the  Diocese of Virginia.

“This is a new chapter for The Falls Church and other congregations voting thus far and early next year,” said the Rev. Yates.  “While we look forward to continuing a productive role in the Anglican Communion, we harbor no ill will to our colleagues in the Diocese  of Virginia. And we agree, as Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori has indicated, that when two groups have irreconcilable differences, the pastoral thing to do is find a gracious way to separate.”  

What the pastor was too polite to say was that they have had enough of the appointment of women and avowed homosexuals to positions of leadership in the church. They specifically reject the theological rhetoric of inclusion, and specifically reject the association of sexual issues with those of basic human rights.

Jefferts-Schori was elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church last June. She was one of seven nominees and squeaked out a narrow majority of votes in the fifth ballot.

She is the first woman Primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. She is married, an instrument-rated pilot and an oceanographer by training. As such, she may be considered to have a view of both the heavens and the depths.

Her narrow victory brought on a schism in the communion. The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, which is on record as opposing women in holy orders, immediately appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury for "alternative primatial oversight," or effective nullification of the election. Several other conservative dioceses affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network also filed appeals.

I don't know if her sex alone would have sundered the church. Rev. Jefferts-Schori voted to consent to the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, culminating a bitter internecine conflict over Robinson's public union with another man.

Her election as Presiding Bishop was the last straw, since it served as confirmation that the Episcopal Church in America was affirming its institutional views of the acceptability of homosexuality and the role of women in the ministry.

Thus, the two churches that have knelt in prayer here in fellowship to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the better part of three hundred years have elected to associate with a bishop in equatorial Africa.

It is interesting, and I am deeply grateful that I am not in either of the congregations. My sole connections with Nigeria are the attractive money-making schemes that come to me over the internet, and the refined crude that I burn in my cars.

This isn't happening downstate in some little town that is still angry about the Yankee invasion. This is happening near enough that you can see the Church at the Falls from the roof of Big Pink.

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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