Two massive Northern Virginia congregations and a handful of smaller churches have opted to cut ties with The Episcopal Church, officials announced Sunday.
Fairfax’s Truro Church and The Falls Church in Falls Church wrapped up a week of voting and tallied ballots from more than 1,200 members each. More than 90 percent of voters in both congregations moved to leave the Episcopal Church and join with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a division of the Anglican Church in Nigeria.
“It is not an easy decision for any of us,” the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, told reporters at a news conference Sunday at Truro. “It is not something that was envisioned long ago.”
Representatives of other churches also delivered voting results that afternoon; St. Stephen’s in Heathsville, Christ the Redeemer in Centreville, St. Margaret’s in Woodbridge and Potomac Falls in Sterling will leave the Episcopal structure.
All Saints’ Church in Woodbridge this month announced its decision to leave the church. At least two other churches have yet to decide on the measure.
The decisions were all approved by wide margins, cementing the mounting ideological rift with the national church, which was widened by the ordination of a gay bishop three years ago in New Hampshire.
Virginia Diocese Bishop Peter Lee said he was “saddened” by the separations in a statement issued on Sunday.
“Today is indeed a sad day for the church and for many in the church,” Lee wrote.
The congregations also approved another ballot measure signaling its wish to retain ownership of the church property, setting up a likely land battle with the Virginia Diocese, which maintains it owns the properties.
Truro and The Falls Church officials spoke in bittersweet tones about the split — elated by the ability to join with a religious body that more closely matches the theological views of their members, but saddened to sever their Episcopalian ties. The Rev. Martyn Minns, a CANA bishop and priest-in-charge of Truro Church, said he felt a “profound mixture of sadness and joy.”
“This has been our spiritual home,” he said. “So separating is so hard.”
