Episcopal property case goes to trial today
Diocese, breakaway congregations each claiming churches
Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007
By TINA ESHLEMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

A judge in Fairfax County will hear evidence starting today in the church-property dispute between the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and a group of congregations that left to affiliate with the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

The case involves 11 Northern Virginia congregations in which the majority of members voted to break with the Episcopal Church -- the U.S.-based wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The votes occurred because of disagreements about what one of the group's leaders called the Episcopal Church's "blatant rejection of the authority of Scripture." The consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003 brought the disagreements to a boiling point. the rest