MMontgomery, USA - For the second time in less than six months, a Montgomery Episcopal church has split from the national church over its appointment of New Hampshire's openly gay bishop.
Nearly 80 percent of the Church of the Ascension's 1,600-member congregation, including two of its three priests, decided Sunday to leave the church and form a new parish in the Anglican Communion called Christchurch, the Montgomery Advertiser reported yesterday.
The new parish will meet at a Montgomery Presbyterian church until a permanent location is found.
''This is one of the most difficult decisions my family has ever had to make," said Mark Wilkerson, who was a senior warden at the Church of the Ascension and is a member of the Christchurch executive committee. ''There is hardly a person in the parish, including those staying behind, who has not touched our lives in some respect."
There has been a split in the Episcopal church since 2003, when the Episcopal Church of the United States of America ordained Gene Robinson as a bishop in New Hampshire. Robinson is openly gay and the first homosexual to be ordained a bishop in the Episcopal church. During that same meeting, the church approved a resolution recognizing the blessing of same-sex unions as ''within the bounds of common life."
In January, the Rev. Doug McCurry resigned from Christ the Redeemer Episcopal Church in East Montgomery in response to Robinson's appointment. Nearly 90 percent of the congregation left with him.
The Rev. Henry Nutt Parsley, Episcopal bishop of Alabama, said the decision by several Church of the Ascension leaders to leave and form a new parish is disappointing.
''The Church of the Ascension is a very fine Episcopal parish, and I believe that they will move forward from this with faithfulness and grace," Parsley said.