February 29, 2012

I wanted to give you a brief report on the court hearing today. The hearing hasn't finished. It lasted until after seven in the evening and will reconvene tomorrow at 2 pm. But I can report on several things that happened today.

Judge Bellows agreed with our request that the date to convey our property to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia should be April 30 and not the earlier dates requested by the Diocese. So we have some more time to prepare for our next steps.

Our churches (with the support of the Virginia Attorney General) had also asked Judge Bellows to honor the clear intentions of our donors by reconsidering the parts of his opinion that require that the funds we held as of January 31, 2007, be transferred to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Judge Bellows listened patiently to all sides of the arguments and then basically reaffirmed his January 10 decision. But there was recognition later in the day that some restricted funds donated for specific uses outside the church may be protected from being turned over.

Tonight we had a meeting of the representatives of our seven churches and our Bishop John Guernsey to discuss how we will continue to move forward together into God's sovereign plans for all of us. Tomorrow night our vestry will meet. We will have many decisions to make about our future. We remain prayerful and confident that God is guiding us in this process and look forward to reviewing the final order and understanding its implications for all of us.

In the Family,

John

The Rev. John Yates II

Rector