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Monday, March 7, 2005

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  The Overland Park church's governing board voted Feb. 28 to recommend approval of the agreement, and parish members will vote April 3 on the separation. The Council of Trustees of the diocese approved the agreement Tuesday.

An announcement of the proposed agreement was made to the suburban Kansas City church Saturday, said Melodie Woerman, spokeswoman for the diocese. A pastoral letter from the Right Rev. Dean Wolfe, Episcopal bishop of Kansas, was read to the diocese's 50 other parishes on Sunday.

In the letter, Wolfe said the differences between the diocese and parish center on "theology, the interpretation of Scripture, and the doctrine and the discipline of the Church."

The Overland Park church decided to withhold some of its financial commitment to the diocese after the ordination in 2003 of V. Gene Robinson, who lives with his male partner, as a bishop in New Hampshire.

"This decision served effectively to sever Christ Church from their responsibilities for the common ministry of this diocese," Wolfe said in the letter.

The Episcopal Church, with 2.4 million members, is the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, which traces its roots to the Church of England. The church has been roiled by controversy since Robinson's ordination, and other churches throughout the country have severed ties with the national church.

The Rev. Ronald McCrary, rector of Christ Episcopal Church, told The Associated Press that the church's vestry _ its governing body _ unanimously supported the proposed separation.

"The Episcopal Church and the diocese are pulling away from historical Anglican teachings," he said. "The Robinson case is the tip of the iceberg, but the substance of it is theology."

© 2005 The Associated Press

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