January 14, 2009
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

VIRGINIA – Just more than two years after the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia parish of the Falls Church split in a theological dispute, the remaining Episcopalians, many of whom long to return to their parish home, are learning that a church is more than a building.

"You definitely feel the Holy Spirit moving through the place," Matt Rhodes, who joined the parish with his wife and two young daughters about six months, told ENS.

Rhodes, a lifelong Episcopalian, said his family came to worship at Falls Church expecting to find a group of people focused on what had happened to them and anxious about the future.

"That's not at all what we saw," he said. "There was a tremendous sense of fellowship" and "this overwhelming sense of vitality."

Falls Church was one of 11 congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in which the majority of members and clergy left in late 2006 or early 2007 to form congregations of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). The diocese and the Episcopal Church have been involved in a lawsuit over the property since shortly after the splits. In the most recent step in that process, the diocese and the wider church have said they will appeal a Fairfax County judge's decisions in the property dispute.

When she visited the parish on January 11, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said she encountered rebirth as she worshipped with the members in their current home at Falls Church Presbyterian across the road from the Falls Church Episcopal building. That building is "occupied," as Virginia Bishop Peter Lee has termed it, by the CANA congregation.

"There's a strong sense of community, commitment and excitement," said Anderson.

Members of the parish, who now average about 80 in attendance on Sunday, have pledged $250,000 for mission and ministry this year, according to priest-in-charge, the Rev. Michael Pipkin. Ten percent of that budget will go to work with local outreach agencies, including the Falls Church Community Service Council. "This is something we've taken on for ourselves," he said.

As parish members gathered after the split, beginning with a group of three men who continued their tradition to meet for prayer together, they realized that coming together to worship was a crucial first step, Pipkin said. When other parishes that have faced similar splits call him to ask how to get over their sense of defeat, Pipkin said he tells them "the answer is: 'you worship'."

These days, continuing Falls Church members "celebrate that God is still present and acting in their lives," Pipkin said, calling Falls Church parish a "celebrating congregation."

Such a stance attracts others, he added. "There's a lot to be joyous about," Pipkin said.

Still, he acknowledged that parish members, many of whom he called "refugees of the split," needed time to heal. The former Navy chaplain said he used his military chaplaincy training to help the parishioners.

Rhodes said he doesn't sense anxiety among the parishioners about when or how the legal dispute surrounding the split might be settled. Instead, "the driving focus," as Rhodes called it, is on outreach and how the parishioners can serve the wider community of Falls Church, Virginia.

Having been a member of other Episcopal Church parishes, Rhodes said he was pleasantly surprised that unlike some parishes that are much larger and have many more resources, the Falls Church parish is not focused inwards. "That's really part of the reason why -- even in the time we've been here -- it's grown," Rhodes said of the parish.

In addition, most members of the parish volunteer for some role in the community's life, Rhodes said, likening the parish to the early church's lay-led gatherings.

In the sermon she preached on January 11, Anderson suggested that "the strife and pain that many have experienced in our church over the last few years is yielding unexpected blessings.

"In the midst of turmoil and strife in our church in the last few years, instead of falling into depressed defeat when some in the Episcopal Church choose to leave, instead of quietly walking away, Episcopalians in dioceses and congregations are bearing witness to Christ wherever they may be," she said. "According to the gifts given them, they are carrying on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world. They are taking their place in the life, worship and governance of the church. Episcopalians are using their gifts in new ways, to begin new ministries to be 'reborn.' Make no mistake about it; the Holy Spirit is at work."

Anderson told ENS that "there's a huge recognition of lay ministry" among the continuing Falls Church members whose example could benefit the entire church. "It's not in a competitive mode [with the clergy]," she noted. "It's a sense of cooperation." The congregation, she said, is living into the understanding that everyone brings different gifts to ministry.

"God's doing a new thing with these people," she added.

Even though some members of the original Falls Church congregation had never opened the Book of Common Prayer, they want to be part of the Episcopal Church, Pipkin told ENS. "They choose that every week," he said, calling the nearly 120 members "open and orthodox."

While many of the members are "still praying, thinking about and hoping" for a return to the parish's property, Pipkin said, "what replaced it was a sense of mission and wonder that we were able to put this together again."

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.