EPISECOPALIANS MAY FORM CHURCH IN NORTH CAROLINA

Traditionalist Episcopalians upset with the recent confirmation of an openly gay bishop are considering forming their own church in Raleigh.The group, All Saint’s Fellowship, printed notice of its intention to explore starting a new church in its weekly Sunday bulletin. It has been holding Sunday services in the chapel of St. David’s School, formerly St. Timothy’s-Hale High School, since January.

“What’s going on here in Raleigh is going on throughout the United States,” said Garland Tucker III of Raleigh, one of the leaders of the effort.Since the Episcopal Church U.S.A. voted last year to confirm its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, many conservative church members have declared a desire to part with the 2.3 million-member denomination. A new organization, the American Anglican Council, headed by Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh and others, recently formed. But it’s not clear how big the group is.

Many of the conservative Episcopalians would like to remain part of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide family of churches with 75 million members headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.But for now, the archbishop recognizes only the Episcopal Church U.S.A. among U.S. Anglicans. Episcopal bishops are discussing alternative oversight for dissenting churches.

The core members of All Saint’s Fellowship are, or were, part of the 2,700-member Christ Church in downtown Raleigh. But services at St. David’s Chapel have drawn other disaffected Episcopalians. Attendance at 5 p.m. Sunday services has been between 130 and 420 people, Tucker said.

Bishop Michael B. Curry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, which includes 118 churches across 39 Piedmont counties, was at a meeting of the church’s House of Bishops near Houston and was not available for comment. Curry voted last year in favor of confirming Robinson, the gay bishop, and a majority of Episcopalians in the diocese have signaled that they support him.

At the annual diocesan convention in January, conservative delegates proposed a dozen resolutions asking the diocese to change its stand. All were soundly defeated. At Christ Church, conservatives won only one of four vacancies on the governing board in early February.

For many opponents of gay ordination, it was clear the diocese was not going to revise its position. Although Christ Church is holding discussions about reconciliation this Wednesday evening and next, some members are determined to leave the church.

“We just want to explore the possibility of a new church parish where we can experience biblical teaching with the majority of Anglicans worldwide who are overwhelmingly orthodox in their faith,” said George DeLoache, one of the group’s leaders.

In North Carolina, a dozen churches split with the Episcopal Church in recent years—long before the consecration of a gay bishop. The leaders of All Saint’s Fellowship said they do not want to join forces with those churches but would rather wait until new oversight is established.

Some of those splinter churches do not recognize the ordination of women; others do not recognize changes to the Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal church’s book of liturgy.

“We respect the other congregations,” said John Wood, one of the leaders of the new group. He added, “Most of our people are not opposed to women’s ordination.”Virtuosity footnote: This group is made up largely of disaffected Anglo-Catholics from a wide geographical circle in North Carolina.