Word: beachings
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...electric organ, boxes full of things like altar cloths and processional candles, and a rack bearing priestly vestments. By 9 o'clock the cafeteria was no longer a cafeteria; it was the sanctuary of the Holy Cross Anglican Church, where the priest, a magnetic 45-year-old named Foley Beach, led his flock in solemn yet joyous worship. "Church on wheels," quipped Harrison, a congregant. Indeed, the transformation and the service's ardor made it seem almost as if the Holy Spirit had decided to whip up a church out of thin...
...reality, however, Holy Cross (which broke ground for a building on Sept. 19) was born in pain and recrimination. Last January, Beach, then the beloved pastor at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in nearby Monroe, Ga., shocked the members of his congregation by telling them that after 12 years as their spiritual leader, he was leaving not only them but also their denomination, the Episcopal Church U.S.A. Weeping, he explained that the church's attitude toward gays, which he termed its "immoral crisis," had led him to "the conclusion that I can no longer serve the Lord as an Episcopal...
...breakups are alike, and Beach's split with St. Alban's has its singular aspects. (There was no squabble over common assets, for one thing.) But it may also be predictive. In electing the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an actively gay man, as a bishop in 2003, the Episcopal Church U.S.A. placed itself at the excruciating center of American mainline Christianity's struggles over homosexuality and at odds with much of the international Anglican Communion to which it belongs. In mid-October the communion will publish a task-force report expected to address the effect of Robinson's election...
Until this year, few would have picked St. Alban's as a model for schism. Arriving in 1992, Beach transformed an aging, liturgically conservative, 35-member congregation by initiating community-outreach programs and a livelier second Sunday service. Before long, the place was hopping. Attendance topped 200, and grateful Albanites invested in a $1.6 million parish hall and a $100,000 pastor's office. They knew Beach strongly opposed the Robinson elevation--he had conducted "burial rites" for Episcopalianism at the time--but most of them agreed with him and were willing to battle beside him for a denominational reversal...
Then came Beach's announcement. Many were thrilled. More than 100 people immediately joined him at Holy Cross. Others were perplexed or heartbroken. "We're traditional people," says St. Alban's charter member Sue Henson. "We're not for Gene Robinson's election, but differences can only be worked out if you stay." Marian Sweeney is peeved that Beach gave so little notice. "You don't make a move like that in a week," she alleges. "He had been accepted by the Bishop of Bolivia before he announced he was leaving. He kept us in a holding pattern, saying...