A once-leading orthodox Episcopal parish has called a man in a same-sex marriage as its new rector.
The Falls Church Episcopal in Falls Church, Virginia outside of Washington, DC announced May 11 that the historic parish will welcome Fr. Walter Burley Stattmann “Burl” Salmon as its new rector in July. He is married to another man.
Salmon currently serves as Associate for Pastoral Care, Christian Education, and Outreach at the affluent Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach, Florida, where he also served as priest-in-charge during a rector’s sabbatical. The Florida parish famously hosted the wedding of Former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania in 2005. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, was baptized at the church according to the Palm Beach Post and the First Family attended Christmas Eve and Easter services at the church in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
“Father Burl is an inspiring and transcendent preacher, an academic who can translate scripture to the present day, a careful and patient listener, and a compassionate and thoughtful manager who will ensure The Falls Church’s continued growth,” introduced Senior Warden Paul Rosbolt in a written announcement to the parish. “Father Burl will come to the Rectory with his husband Bob Henkel, who is Director of Publications for the American Society of Nephrology. They will be joined in the Rectory by Blue, an occasionally affectionate ragdoll cat.”
The church, established in 1732, famously split in late 2006 after more than 90 percent of members voted to depart the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, citing theological disagreements with the Episcopal Church. It had been the largest congregation measured by weekly attendance in the diocese and counted U.S. President George Washington among its past vestry members.
A congregation remaining within the Episcopal Church reorganized at a neighboring Presbyterian church in 2007 and assumed occupancy of the historic church campus in 2012 after a Virginia district court awarded ownership to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. The Falls Church Anglican worships at a newly constructed church building one mile away from the historic church.
The pre-split Falls Church was prominent in opposing the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003. Robinson was the first openly partnered gay man to be elected and consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church and worldwide Anglican Communion. Robinson’s election by the New Hampshire Diocese and subsequent consent process by the denomination’s House of Bishops escalated an ongoing fight around the authority of scripture within the worldwide family of churches descended from the Church of England. The Episcopal Church has since elected several officials in same-sex marriages, including the bishops of Maine, Michigan and Missouri.
The denomination’s General Convention first provisionally authorized church rites for same-sex unions in 2012, formally enacting them in 2015 and eventually requiring dioceses to make those rites accessible in 2018. The last action resulted in Bishop William Love of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany being charged and found guilty of failing to abide “by the Discipline and Worship of The Episcopal Church” in declining to permit his clergy to perform same-sex marriage rites. Love resigned February 1 under an agreement negotiated with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. He was received into the Anglican Church in North America in April.
Falls Church Episcopalians quickly took a different path than the Anglican congregation. In December 2012, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia ordained its first openly homosexual candidate to the priesthood in a ceremony at the Falls Church campus. The church also hosted a same-sex blessing ceremony in 2014. The congregation elected a laywoman in a same-sex marriage to serve on the parish vestry, later as a warden. In 2020, the congregation welcomed its first priest in a same-sex marriage to serve as Associate Rector.
Since assuming control of the downtown Falls Church campus, the congregation has rebuilt from approximately 165 attendees in 2013 to an average Sunday attendance of 301 in 2019. While smaller than the pre-split congregation’s average attendance of nearly 1,700, the Episcopal congregation’s 84% growth places it among the fastest-growing Episcopal churches in that time period. Churchwide, only 15 percent of Episcopal congregations report attendance growth of 10% or more in the past five years, while 61% report a 10% decline or greater in the same time period.
What was that? The Fall church?
The Anglican Communion is diverse in the positions on social issues including human sexuality. The Diocese of the Southeast of the Anglican Church of Mexico also recently decided to offer blessings to couples in same-sex relationships.
“Diverse” is one way of putting it. I can think of better words.
The Anglican Communion isn’t diverse in the sense you mean – the vast majority of the AC follows traditional biblical Christianity.
The rump TEC and its cronies (including in Mexico) are a mere fringe group who have departed from historical Christianity. The examples you give illustrate that well. This is why there is a new Anglican province in USA, while TEC declines.
The ACNA has declined by 10% since 2017. The argument that numerical decline = ‘fringe’ would then apply to the ACNA too. That is why that would be a logical fallacy. The Anglican Communion, like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, has far more people claim adherence than are active communicant members. This is as true in TEC, ACoC, ACinM, and CofE as it is in Church of Nigeria and Church of Uganda. In terms of the larger number, they are fairly evenly split. In terms of the active members, the Church of England (for example) counts about 700,000 on Sundays (not including other days or monthly attendance) and the Church of Nigeria counts about 2 million. The numbers are not as starkly one-sided as you try and say.
No, ACNA hasn’t declined by 10%. Two of its dioceses transferred to the Church of Nigeria, a body largely aligned with ACNA in doctrine and aims.
Nor did TEC’s loss of numbers when e.g. Dio South Carolina left it in 2012 constitute decline.
Decline means shrinking. TEC’s dioceses and churches have been losing more parishioners than they have gained, pretty much for decades. Have a look at Goodhew and Bonner’s study of ACNA – its been growing, albeit more slowly than its founders wished. Ironically, the parts of it that haven’t are mostly those that are ex-TEC.
“The argument that numerical decline = ‘fringe’…”
Which I didn’t make, so the rest of your post appears to miss the mark.
You argued that the Anglican Communion is “diverse” on such issues as sexuality. I pointed out that it is not. The groups you refer to, such as TEC and a diocese in Mexico are actually a small rump. The vast majority of the Communion follow orthodox historical Christianity.
If the diversity is at the expense of the Word of God, the Bible, then it will not be blessed by God. Anyone who advocates homosexuality does so in direct contradiction to God’s Word.
Would the church have called as Rector a man or woman in an adulterous relationship, or a single person who continuously is jumping in and out of bed with whomever they hook up with that Friday night? I hope not, why then is homosexuality exempt? It isn’t.
I would say to this man, and any other same sex married couples that God does love them, but God is a Holy God and will not be mocked by sin. Repent and turn your heart back to the true God.