{"id":1831,"date":"2012-01-31T13:22:05","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T17:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2012-01-31T13:22:05","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T17:22:05","slug":"who-owns-the-chapel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/01\/31\/who-owns-the-chapel\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Owns the Chapel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The property battle between denominational bodies and the local churches that disaffiliate from them is heating up\u2014and the list of congregations that suddenly find themselves homeless has grown longer.<\/p>\n

Less than two months after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the denominational bodies in two church property cases in that state, a county circuit court in Virginia ruled that seven more congregations must leave their properties to the Episcopal Church (see \u201cCourt order<\/a>,\u201d Jan. 28). Two, Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church, are among the most storied Episcopal churches in the country.<\/p>\n

The seven Virginia congregations had disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church because they were concerned it was no longer committed to biblical and Anglican orthodoxy\u2014as evidenced by its divergence from the global Anglican Communion on the matter of gay ordination. \u00a0They affiliated instead with the Anglican Church of North America. \u00a0\u201cThe core issue,\u201d according to Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, is not physical property but \u201ctheological and moral truth and the intellectual integrity of faith in the modern world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note: This was first published<\/a> in World Magazine\u2019s early February issue.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
John Yates of The Falls Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The property battle between denominational bodies and the local churches that disaffiliate from them is heating up\u2014and the list of congregations that suddenly find themselves homeless has grown longer. Less than two months after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the denominational bodies in two church property cases in that state, a county […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[123,127,810,807,808,176,809],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian","tag-church","tag-church-ownership","tag-episcopal","tag-episcopalian","tag-evangelical","tag-the-falls-church"],"yoast_head":"\nWho Owns the Chapel? - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The property battle between denominational bodies and the local churches that disaffiliate from them is heating up\u2014and the list of congregations that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/01\/31\/who-owns-the-chapel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Owns the Chapel? 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