Virginia parish demands leader 'repent'
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 23, 2006

Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire.

Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism.

"A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. "Rather, he calls sinners to repentance and proclaims the Good News that sin can be forgiven and new life can be obtained in Christ." the rest


Episcopal PUP-like panel calls for 'amicable divorce' if necessary
By John H. Adams
The Layman Online
Friday, January 20, 2006

The roots of the family tree of Episcopalians go deep in Virginia, but the limbs are falling off and the source of nourishment – giving – is drying up. The 87,000-member Diocese of Virginia, the largest diocese in the Episcopal Church (USA), is particularly vulnerable. Its bishop, James Peter Lee, has been under fire by traditional evangelicals because of his support of the election of a homosexual bishop and his vote to allow Episcopal rectors to conduct "union" services for same-gender couples. Many Virginia Episcopalians regard Lee, who once co-chaired a Billy Graham crusade in Chapel Hill, N.C., when he was the minister of that city's Chapel of the Cross, as a turncoat from traditionalism.

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