Word: beach
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Hearing such allegations, Beach tears up all over again. His incompatibility with his old job, he says, crystallized for him after a difficult early December meeting with his boss, J. Neil Alexander, the Episcopal bishop in Atlanta. "It hit me like a slap in the face. If I stayed, I'd lose my soul," he says. He claims that aspects of his new situation weren't finalized until just before or just after his announcement. In any case, he didn't want to share preliminary planning with his flock because "it would be manipulative. I could have roused...
...churches that emerged from his decision certainly face very different challenges. Holy Cross, abustle with anticipation and unburdened by differences with its hierarchy, is clearly the happier place. Its members support Beach when he says Holy Cross represents "not a rebellion but a refocusing on what a church is supposed to be." The new, 200-plus congregation includes not just St. Alban's refugees but also ex-Episcopalians from all over north central Georgia. "I'm conservative," says Ken Lander, St. Alban's former praise and worship leader. "Foley took a stand, and I went with him. I couldn...
...Alban's has more immediate concerns. It lost not only Beach but also as much as half of its congregation, a third of its vestry, its organist and, says a warden, "half of almost everything elseushers, choir, acolytes, people who make the coffee." The average age of congregants has jumped to somewhere in the 50s, and there are far fewer children. Donations are down a third. "All the years we struggled to build this church, we're right back where we started," says a desolate Henson. "How do you hire a rector without money?" Bishop Alexander insists that the diocese...
...might similarly argue that the local social fabric is not torn, just very strained. Poole says he looks forward to seeing Beach in the stands at high school football games ("I miss him"). But others speak of rumors bandied, invitations not received and phone calls unreturned. Some families have split up on Sundays, and others have fought. Irene Parker wanted to "follow my heart" and go to Holy Cross. Her husband, a St. Alban's vestryman, wanted to stay. "Todd and I had a huge fight, the biggest argument of our marriage," she says. "Todd said he didn't believe...
...Alban's held its 50th anniversary party in July. A good time was reportedly had. A few Holy Crossers showed up, although Beach was on vacation with his family, so he didn't. Bishop Alexander attended, though, and during his remarks pointedly observed that the congregation had returned the word Episcopal, which Beach had removed, to its church sign. Most of his listeners applauded. Some did not. In a situation like this, such moments are to be expected. Again and again and again. --With reporting by Helen Gibson/London