Departing church gives up land
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 24, 2006

An Episcopal congregation in Woodbridge whose members were unhappy with liberal trends in the Episcopal Church suddenly dissolved itself last week, leaving the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia with a $420,000 bill from the property's mortgage.

The members of Christ Our Lord Episcopal Church, a mission congregation founded in 1992, has since reconstituted under the Anglican Diocese of North Kigezi in Uganda as Christ Our Lord Anglican Church. It is the third mission to leave the diocese because of the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson as the world's first openly homosexual bishop, but the first to abandon its property.

"I am saddened by this departure and by the mission's apparent failure to thrive," Virginia Bishop Peter J. Lee said. "I am also disappointed to not have heard of plans for this action directly from the leadership of the congregation prior to their taking this action."

Christ Our Lord's vicar, the Rev. George Beaven, said his congregation tried in April to strike a deal with the diocese to depart with its property, but the diocese refused. the rest