by EMILY HULEN
Members of Lexington’s historic R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church are not too worried about the controversy some describe as a crisis for the denomination, according to its senior warden, Brian Shaw.
The controversy involves deep differences between the relatively liberal U.S. Episcopal Church and its larger, conservative sister churches throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion. The liberal-conservative fight, both nationally and worldwide, arose in 2003 when the American denomination consecrated a bishop who was living in a homosexual relationship. It has more recently become a crisis since key Anglican bishops issued a communiqué Feb. 19 in Tanzania demanding a response to its position from the Episcopal Church by September. The U.S. Episcopal bishops are addressing this issue at a meeting this weekend near Houston.
But all this is having little effect on R.E. Lee Episcopal Church, which
currently has no priest on staff. “One of the things that characterizes
the Episcopal Church is a diversity of opinion,” said Shaw, who has been
the top lay leader of the parish since January. “If they feel strongly,
a lot of people vote with their feet. Those who stay accept what has
been decided and move forward.”
Since last fall, 10 Episcopal churches in other parts of Virginia have joined other conservative parishes across the country in pulling out of the denomination. Rather than leaving, they have claimed ownership of their church property, prompting the Diocese of Virginia to sue two of the wealthier parishes, claiming the property belongs to the diocese.
Locally, some maybe have “voted with their feet.” St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Lexington, established by Episcopalians unhappy with the denomination’s acceptance of women priest or a new Book of Common Prayer, has recently reported a spike in membership.
Washington and Lee parent John Nelson attends The Falls Church in Northern Virginia, one of the churches that just separated from the Episcopal Church and realigned itself with the conservative Anglican church in Nigeria.
Nelson witnessed the church’s split in December. He said there was a very small group reluctant to split, but that the church was largely in agreement. Some members of the church had been Episcopalians all their lives, he noted, and it was a very difficult, emotional decision for them.
“There is a sense of relief,” he said, especially in light of the communiqué. He said that his fellow churchgoers see the Tanzania communiqué as recognizing the legitimacy of their reasons for leaving.
“The heresies are being driven by a very small group, but they are very influential and in leadership positions,” Nelson said of what he sees as liberal changes in the Episcopal Church.
The Rt. Rev. Heath Light, a retired Episcopal bishop visiting R.E. Lee Church to celebrate the Sunday service March 4, read in his sermon from a letter by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Schori, the first and only female bishop in the entire Anglican Communion and a “liberal” in the controversy, signed the communiqué and called in her letter for a “season of fasting” from controversial actions on both sides, in order to seek reconciliation.
In Nelson’s view, if the Episcopal Church were to return to some of its earlier and more conservative teachings, reconciliation would not be out of the question.
“Denominations don’t change very quickly,” Nelson said, “and big churches move glacially.”
But at this point, a number of conservative churches have already left. According to Nelson, The Falls Church rector, John Yates, has been active in the effort to find reconciliation for almost 20 years now.
Nelson predicted that a new Anglican province will form in the United States to unite the number of churches that have recently left, especially since the three largest churches in his diocese have already split away. Were that the case, Nelson also predicted that the Falls Church would join such a group.
Regarding the lawsuit filed against his church by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, Nelson noted that his parish church is older than the diocese. The church is steeped in history; George Washington himself was once a warden there. (Robert E. Lee was once a vestryman at the church in Lexington, called Grace Church at the time.)
Yates published a news release in November on the state of the church, saying that he longed for a place that “believes that the local church can be the hope of the world.”
The Falls Church had been previously required under the Episcopal Church to seek approval for any ministers they planned to send out into the mission field. Time after time, according to Nelson, the church’s requests to send out missionaries and plant new churches had been denied. With the split, The Falls Church is now free to appoint missionaries and start these new churches on its own.
“We have a vision for planting new churches,” Nelson said. “This is freeing.”
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd