The Falls Church

The Falls Church historically refers to the church from which the city of Falls Church, Virginia, near Washington, D. C., takes its name. The parish it originally served was established in 1732 and the brick meeting house preserved on site dates to 1769. In recent years the congregation became divided on religious issues and the buildings and property of the congregation became the subject of continuing litigation.

In December 2006, the congregation by a vote of 1221 to 127 voted to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) (a member of the Anglican Communion), and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), originally a missionary initiative of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and now a member jurisdiction of the Anglican Church in North America, which is not part of the Anglican Communion, but is affiliated with the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a network of conservative Anglican churches which formed in 2008 in response to an ongoing theological crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The disaffiliating portion of the congregation, now known as The Falls Church (Anglican), continued to worship at The Falls Church property while members remaining loyal to the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), now known as The Falls Church (Episcopal), worshiped across the street at Falls Church Presbyterian Church. Litigation ensued, and in 2012 a court in Fairfax, Virginia, held that the Diocese and ECUSA have “a contractual and proprietary interest” in The Falls Church and other properties and ordered return of the properties to the Diocese.