Letters to the Editor: July 9 – 15, 2015
F.C. Anglicans Were Not Expelled from Church
Editor,
When I saw the headline in the June 25 issue of the News-Press, “Expelled from Historic Church, Anglicans Buy a New Home”, my first thought was “there Nick Benton goes again, rewriting history.” Then I got mad.
As a resident of the City of Falls Church for 40 years and as a longtime member of Falls Church Presbyterian Church, I know well the saga of The Falls Church Episcopal Church. It was the “continuing Episcopalians” who were “expelled” from their church in 2006 when the Anglicans laid claim to the property and refused to share any space on that property. After a few months the Episcopalians approached our church asking to share our space, and we shared our facilities with them for about five years while the two parties asked the courts to settle the dispute.
I believe the Virginia Supreme Court denied the claim of the Anglicans to control the historic property and a peaceful transition of control of the property soon followed.
The article explains most of these facts, but so often it is the headline that grabs the attention of the casual reader.
I think a more accurate headline would have been “Falls Church Anglicans to purchase a new property on Route 50”. Not a sexy headline but more accurate.
Michael Volpe
Falls Church
(Ed. replies – The Falls Church Anglicans were expelled from the historic church by a series of court decisions.)
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