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| Eric Hauser, former senior warden at Galilee Church, is one of seven leaders to quit recently.
(Vicki Cronis/The Virginian-Pilot) |
By Steven G. Vegh
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH - In a split echoing the debate within the Episcopal Church, seven leaders of Galilee Church have quit to launch a new congregation outside the denomination they accuse of heresy.
"It is what we consider the unorthodox direction of the Episcopal leadership that has caused us to leave," said Eric Hauser, the former senior warden at Galilee, which is at 40th Street and Pacific Avenue.
Much of Galilee's leadership, including its senior priest, condemned the Episcopal Church's approval in 2003 of the ordination of a non celibate gay man as a bishop in New Hampshire.
The ordination also outraged leaders in the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part.
In February, Communion leaders gave the denomination until September to promise it would not approve any future same-sex unions or gay ordinations, or face unspecified consequences.
The controversy reflects a deep debate within Anglicanism over how literally the Bible should be interpreted.
Scott Rigell, one of the departing Galilee leaders, said he could no longer endure the Episcopal Church's "modern" approach, which he said was at odds with the denomination's historical "orthodox" stance on scripture.
Just how many other Galilee members may leave will become clearer when Hauser's Trinity Church holds its first service today in space at First Baptist Church of Virginia Beach on 35th Street.
Hauser called Trinity an "orthodox evangelical congregational church" unconnected to any denomination.
Meanwhile, conservatives in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, which encompasses South Hampton Roads, plan to meet in Suffolk on Saturday to start a chapter of the American Anglican Council. The Atlanta-based council considers itself an advocate for "biblical" Episcopalians and Anglicans and already counts Galilee as an affiliate.
Until several weeks ago, Hauser and his six colleagues were a majority of Galilee's governing board, or vestry.
In leaving Galilee, they chose not to emulate several Episcopal churches in Northern Virginia that voted last year to take both their parishioners and church property out of the denomination.
Those parishes are now locked in litigation with diocesan officials there who say Episcopal congregations only hold land and buildings in trust, and not as owners.
The same kind of dispute is playing out between the Southern Virginia diocese and Church of the Messiah, a Chesapeake parish that quit the denomination last fall.
Galilee has been Episcopal since 1903, making it a relative youngster in a diocese with several parishes more than 300 years old.
But Carlyle Gravely said that Galilee, with about 2,100 members, is one of the five largest of the diocese's approximately 120 parishes. Gravely, the editor of the diocese's newspaper, The Jamestown Cross, said the diocese has 33,000 members.
Galilee is also known for the conservative theology and evangelical leanings of many parishioners. The parish withheld at least a part of its donations to the diocese to protest the 2003 New Hampshire ordination.
Last fall, the senior minister, the Rev. J. Coleman Tyler, compared the denomination to the Titanic and said Galilee should be "prepared to leave the ship."
But in a Jan. 14 sermon at Galilee, Bishop John C. Buchanan, the diocese's interim leader, said he would never let the parish split away.
"This property is a legacy from good, faithful Episcopalians," he said then. "There will always be a parish affiliated with the Diocese of Southern Virginia in this location and on this particular site."
In the end, it was the prospect of a fight within Galilee, not with Buchanan, that tipped Hauser against pushing for a parish pullout.
He said that compared with the parishes in Northern Virginia, Galilee's members were not as unified around quitting the Episcopal Church. Some Galilee critics of the denomination said they'd rather work internally for reforms.
"I, personally, didn't want to get into a situation where we were in conflict in our own congregation," Hauser said.
According to Emily Slingluff, a 20-year parishioner, that has already occurred. "There are divides within divides - that church is in tatters," she said.
Tyler, who remains at Galilee as senior pastor, declined to be interviewed. But he maintained in an e-mail that "we're solid and 'steady as she goes' as a congregation."
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Thank you for your courage to love amidst hate.
Jesus must weep to see the intense, divisive hate we have for gays in his name. It must break his heart to see his bride - the church - ignore his commandment to love one another, above all else, for love casts out hate and fear. We are blessed to celebrate as brothers & sisters in Christ -each of us brings our own gifts, our humanity, our diversity. In ancient cultures, gays and bisexuals were shamans and healers, their androgeny was respected and appreciated as a simple gift of nature to make them more sensitive in spirit and to guide us all toward wholeness. Thank you if you are an out gay episcopalian. Thank you if you are an episcopalian at Galilee who chooses love over hate and fear.
Wrong headed Thinking II
Mr Hamar I agree 100%. I think everyone here makes a valid point. It wasn't that long ago when the Episcopal church had a woman Priest and there was upheavel over that. I agree mostly with the person who said, Let go and let God.
Gay issues
Jesus was confronted with the issue of marriage. He stated their's no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven. He stated that some are born Eunuchs, some are made Eunuchs by others, some made themselves Eunuchs. Eunuchs, male, when castrated lose testosterone and female hormones control their behavior. Kings used Eunuchs becuase their women were safer around them. Eunuchs male desires waned. Eunuchs can be synomous with homosexuals. Jesus said leave them alone for who are you to judge someone elses' servant?
Preachers use religion to advertise their personal bigotry as God's word. They dont preach that Peter, James and others kept women , called sister's, who performed all the duties of a wife. Paul even stated if the women give up their virginity let them stay single if they chose, not marry and keep on living together. The founders of christianity had different views from these super-religious modern ones.
Jesus hated gays!
Would Jesus even allow gays in his church? Wasn't the "Sermon on the Mount" about hating gays? Maybe they should do a exorcism of the Priest that is gay. That would make a really good show. Sounds like a whole lot of love going around the Episcopal church and a whole lot of throwing rocks.
Let the religious fanatics squabble
all they want amongst themselves, but please make them pay the full fare like the rest of us. Make them pay taxes on all the money parishioners give them, and taxes on the valuable property they squat on. Talk about "special rights," they have a lot of nerve putting anybody down when churches are on the bottom of the morality heap themselves.
What are you so afraid of?
Exactly what is it that these people are afraid of? If they are so certain of being on the "right" side of God then let Him worry about it!
Contrary to popular but ignorant belief
it's not a divisive issue as they are making it. If any church splits over something so trivial, then that tells me that church wasn't unified in/under God from the start... It just proves that the foundation of said church is man's word and beliefs over that of the Holy Father's.
Good
Maybe this is a beginning to an end of at least one silly group of superstitious people. This is why I am not a Christian, they tend to get thier sense of right and wrong from a book, not from common sense. And, no matter what the Bible says, they will just twist the interpretation to fit what they already believe. Many of the gays I have known were simply born that way and since God made it possible for people to be attracted to the same sex, maybe it is a God given natural attribute for some people. Besides, isn't it those people who are so outspoken against gays that have the higher probability of harboring suppressed curiosities regarding homosexual acts?
Wrong Headed Thinking
I know Eric Hauser well as one of his former law partners. I believe that he is well intentioned, but very much in error. If one part of the Bible is to be taken literally with no modification to reflect advances in medical and scientific knowledge, then all of it must be taken literally. Applying this standard, Mr. Hauser and every other departing member of Galilee who was previously married, divorced and since remarried is an adulterer and in violation of Christ's direction that divorce was not permissible. Medical and scientific research increasingly indicate that being gay is not a choice. On the other hand, getting a divorce is a matter of choice. Therefore, which is the greater sin? I find it troubling that Hauser applies a strict application of the Bible to gays but not to himself and other divorced and remarried members of Galilee. Sounds a lot like the conduct of the Pharisees that Christ so frequently condemned. Eric, you need to do some serious rethinking.