Rochester NY: All Saints dissolved by vote
Episcopal diocese moves to shutter Irondequoit church, transfer property
Marketta Gregory
Staff writer

(November 20, 2005) — Rochester's Episcopal diocese voted Saturday to dissolve All Saints Episcopal Church in Irondequoit and transfer its property and other assets to the trustees of the diocese.

"It is so ordered," Bishop Jack McKelvey said moments after a majority of delegates cast a voice vote to end their relationship with All Saints.

The church had refused to pay more than $16,000 it owed the diocese because it believes the diocese and the Episcopal Church of the USA shouldn't have supported the 2003 ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire and given individual dioceses the right to decide whether to bless same-sex unions.

Allen Walck, organist and choir director at All Saints, slipped into the back of the room at the Hyatt Regency hotel just in time to say the Lord's Prayer and hear the vote. When it became clear that the more than 200 delegates to the diocesan convention had decided to close his church, he put his head in his hands and wept.

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