Our churches (with the strong support of the Virginia Attorney General) had asked Judge Bellows to honor the clear intentions of our donors (over the years before we left The Episcopal Church that their contributions not go to TEC or the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia), by reconsidering the parts of his opinion that require that the funds we held as of January 31, 2007, be transferred to the Diocese. Judge Bellows listened patiently to all sides of the arguments and then basically reaffirmed his January 10 decision. Although this ruling went against us, the Final Order does recognize that some restricted funds donated for uses outside the church should be protected from being turned over.

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

The Final Order also provides a number of dates before April 30 when we or the Diocese need to take certain actions, such as providing certain information or signing deeds or other documents. Please continue to pray for and encourage our faithful and hard-working staff, who will have much to do over the next few weeks to pull together this information and to prepare for the property transfers and their effects on our ministry operations.

We will also be transitioning our web sites and emails to the new tfcanglican.org name, but our existing web site at www.thefallschurch.org temporarily will re-direct people to our new site at www/tfcanglican.org.

Please continue to pray for our church, clergy, and staff, and also for our six sister churches who bear similar burdens under the Final Order. We continue to work closely together and to support and encourage one another, and we have received wonderful pastoral care from our Bishops John Guernsey and Martyn Minns.