Did The Anglicans Consult ACORN?

October 9, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Episcopal Church 

All over the country, conservative Episcopal churches and dioceses, upset with the denomination’s prevailing views about gay and lesbian people, have attempted to leave the church-institutional while trying to keep their churches-structural. One of the largest to try to leave was the Falls Church in Virginia.

Now the local newspaper, with some of those who opposed the split as sources, suggests that the conservatives engaged in electoral monkey business. Names even come up of some who benefited from the Presidential events in Florida in 2000:

In accordance with the [Virginia] statute, [Episcopalians in good standing Robin Fetsch and Gail Turner] note, the number that voted to defect was officially reported as 1,221. But in December 2005, the church’s annual report listed its membership as 2,836 and in May 2006, its mandated annual Parochial Report to the Diocese listed membership at 2,484. Therefore, by either membership count, the number who voted to defect was less than a “majority of the whole number.”

They added that many long-standing members of the church were not allowed to officially vote, but told to complete so-called “provisional ballots,” more than 200 of which were cast, but none of which were counted in the reported vote count.

Turner said that neither he nor his wife, members for more than 15 years, were allowed to vote, and Fetsch added that her son, who was both baptized and married in the church, was not allowed to vote, either.

That’s because, it was explained to them, “membership” was defined as, for purposes of the vote, not only being baptized, but having received communion three times in the past year in that specific church.

So many church members either did not vote, or their votes were not counted, that instead of Yates’ claim in the church’s 2006 annual report that “90 percent of our church family strongly supported this decision,” the actuality was that “30 percent of the church family did so,” Turner said….

Meanwhile, noted Bush administration associates and fellow travelers such as Alberto Gonzales, Porter Goss, Michael Gerson and Fred Barnes flocked to the church, along with many political conservatives from around Northern Virginia. Over 80 percent of the membership comes from those circles, she claimed, adding that only 15 to 18 percent have real Episcopalian roots.

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