KIM LAWTON: In Virginia, nine parishes, including two of the oldest in the country, announced they were severing ties with the Episcopal Church. A total of 15 Virginia churches have now indicated plans to leave. That represents 18 percent of the average weekly Sunday attendance in the diocese. Church members said they no longer wanted to be associated with what they see as the denomination’s liberal interpretations of the Bible on homosexuality and other theological issues.
Reverend JIM OAKES (Priest, Truro Church): There are certain aspects of the faith that we believe are bedrock core, and you can’t compromise on those, and we think that a core problem with the Episcopal Church is that it has compromised on those core values.LAWTON: Most of the departing churches have voted to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA, which was founded by the Anglican Church in >Nigeria. Their bishop here is Martyn Minns of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia.
Bishop MARTYN MINNS (Convocation of Anglicans in North America [CANA], speaking at press conference): CANA was birthed as a pastoral response to the crisis in the Episcopal Church. It was designed to provide safe harbor for those who could no longer find their spiritual home there. LAWTON: One question is, can they take their church property with them?
: Morally, it seems to me that no current leadership of an individual congregation has the right to take away the assets -- property assets -- of a church that was built by Episcopalians for the present generation and for future generations.
