Beth Thelton opened the front door of her Woodmont home to find it ransacked. A young man who would later turn himself into police, had broken into her home as part of a desperate search. She would retell the story more than one year later to the Arlington County Board during a meeting last week.
“My six- and eight-year-old daughters and I had to walk across broken glass to find that our home had been ransacked in a search for prescription drugs.”
The burglary was just one in a string of four to occur that August in Woodmont. The burglar, a guest in a nearby religious retreat known as the Cedars, confessed to the homeowners in a series of handwritten notes left on their doors, stating he had a drug problem. He later turned himself into police and plead guilty to two counts of burglary.
But that didn’t end problems for some Woodmont residents for whom the Cedars, where the young man who confessed to the burglaries was being trained in a spiritual leadership course only five months after leaving a drug rehabilitation center, has become a source of anger and neighborhood discord.
THAT TENSION WAS EVIDENT as the board began public testimony on an application for a special use permit from the Fellowship Foundation — a wealthy association conservative Christians that supports the Cedars — to build two new 12-person dormitories for the retreat. County zoning laws do not allow for such dormitories unless they provide a benefit to the public or the county grants a special permit, one that board members saw fit to grant.
The new dorms will only bring the Cedars into compliance with the code. It has already operated group homes on its property since 1978 and reportedly exceeded the legal number of guests allowed on the property.
According to Richard Carver, president of the retreat, county officials let the group homes operate without much interference.
“Many years ago the Fellowship Foundation was of the opinion that they had an informal agreement with the zoning administrator to use the properties in the way they were used,” Carver said.
Turning to the break-ins, he said, “That young man came to a mentor who told him to come forward and tell the police. We have a highly vested interest in making sure this does not occur again.”
Yet the break-ins are just one aspect of an on-going conflict between the Cedars and nearby residents. The retreat is best known as the home of the National Prayer Breakfast, an event attended by every U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Its residents can stay up to four years, according to Mary McHutchin, who has spent time on the grounds, and pay $400 each month in exchange for a commune-like atmosphere where they can develop spiritually. Residents do chores on the property and are forbidden from engaging in sexual activity.
The Fellowship Foundation, a group with a roster of members that includes senators, congressional representatives, John Ashcroft and other figures in the Bush administration, bought the Cedars for an estimated $1.2 million. Its stated annual revenue is nearly $11 million. Dubbed “the rich Christians” by some residents, the foundation is known to conduct meetings at the Cedars and to host international guests. Woodmont resident Carla Von Burnowitz recalled the armed body guards that appeared outside her house when Yaser Arafat arrived at the retreat for a conference.
In 2003, neighbors clashed with Cedars leadership again when the county government was considering an amendment to its “Bicycle Plan” that would have resulted in the completion of a pedestrian foot bridge over nearby Spout Run. The bridge would have brought foot and bicycle traffic close to Cedars property but its leadership campaigned against it, according to Woodmont resident Steve Bauer, convincing many homeowners it would increase crime and devalue their land. The Cedars succeeded in halting the county’s efforts.
After the break-ins, Carver said leadership at the retreat told the community it was planning to begin an effort aimed at reaching out and strengthening ties with the neighborhood. Carver said it will host a Christmas event in December that will be open to the public, breaking the shroud of secrecy neighbors claim surrounds the Cedars and the Fellowship Foundation.
But many residents look back to a series of community meetings in which, they say, Cedars representatives had to be compelled to address the burglaries caused by one of its disciples.
“Somebody was forced to stand up and speak to the issue at a civic association meeting,” Barbara Feinman, a Woodmont resident, told the board. “We started a series of meetings. It was not pleasant.”
The oldest residents of Woodmont remember a time when they lived in relative harmony with Cedars residents but the traffic it generates, some residents claim, has made the neighborhood unsafe. Speeding cars drive in and out of the retreat, said Woodmont resident Von Burnowitz, often ignoring the four speed bumps residents lobbied the county to install. The retreat sits on a cul-de-sac, leaving only one route to its driveway.
Current and former members of the foundation own homes around the Cedars property. According to Bauer, their common bond has led them to join forces in dominating neighborhood politics.
“Whenever they wish, they are likely to be the majority at our civic association meetings,” he said.
Yet other residents are less suspicious of the Cedars and the foundation.
“They are very private people,” said Naiem Sherbiney, president of the Woodmont Civic Association. “A lot of people sometimes mistake privacy for secrecy.”
The county board approved the new special permit to allow the Cedars to expand but member Chris Zimmerman was cautious about the precedent the issue might set for other developments, particularly colleges looking to create more dormitory space. He also cautioned the board on showing support for a religious institution like the Cedars.