Episcopal Church Defections

[Christina]

The New York Times reports: “Two large and influential Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted overwhelmingly yesterday to leave the Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, a conservative leader in a churchwide fight over homosexuality.Five smaller churches in Virginia also announced yesterday that they had voted to secede, joining four others that have already left and three more expected to announce their decisions soon. Some affiliated with other archbishops in Africa.The secessions could lead to battles over the churches’ property, although both sides say they want to avoid legal fights. The move is also likely to escalate divisions in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a 77-million-member alliance in which the Episcopal Church is the American branch.The Rev. Martyn Minns, rector at one of the two large parishes, Truro Church in Fairfax, said at a news conference: ‘A burden is being lifted. There are new possibilities breaking through.’Clergy members at some of these churches have for many years criticized what they regard as a leftward drift in the Episcopal Church and saw the consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003 as the last straw.Episcopal Church leaders tried to persuade them that the church could accommodate everyone. The conservatives are a minority in a denomination with 7,200 congregations in 100 dioceses in the United States. Since 2003, about 36 other churches have left, according to the Episcopal News Service. Several dioceses have also taken steps toward separation.Most of the breakaway churches in Virginia are joining the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, an offshoot of the Nigerian church led by the archbishop of Nigeria, Peter J. Akinola…”