GOD IN GOVERNMENT : The Best From This Week's Blog

Episcopal Fight in Va. Returns to Court

A years-long, multimillion-dollar land battle between the Episcopal Church in Virginia and conservatives who broke away from the denomination is headed back into court.

The Virginia Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would hear an appeal by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and the national Church, which lost in Fairfax District Court last year.

A district court judge had sided with nine conservative Virginia congregations whose members were angry about the liberal approach the church takes toward several issues, including whether the Bible can be read literally and whether gays and lesbians should be accorded the same rights as heterosexuals (in marriage and access to clerical positions, among other things). Conservative congregants voted to leave the Episcopal Church, take millions of dollars in real estate assets and join another, more like-minded branch of the Anglican Communion.

Faith Advisory Panel Avoids Controversies

The first effort of President Obama's new faith advisory council sidesteps some of the most contentious issues, including what kind of lengths faith-based social service groups need to go in order to separate government work from proselytizing and whether supporting same-sex parents means recognizing gay marriage.

In a report, which is in the rough-draft phase, the panel advises the president on six areas he has said are the top priorities for collaboration between faith-based groups and his White House: fatherhood and the family, interreligious affairs, domestic poverty, global poverty, reforming the faith-based office (this is mostly about constitutional issues) and the environment.

Staff reporters Michelle Boorstein, Jacqueline L. Salmon and William Wan blog regularly on religion, politics and policy at http://washingtonpost.com/onfaith.