Tennessee: Smyrna Episcopals split from denomination over gay issues
By COLLEEN CREAMER

In a move that brings home a nationwide controversy over the ordination of openly gay priests, All Saints' Episcopal Church in Smyrna has voted to split from its denomination to become St. Patrick's Anglican Church. It is the first church in Middle Tennessee to do so.

Rev. Ray Kasch, the former pastor at All Saints' and the new congregational head of St. Patrick's, said the church timed the recent split with the seating of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori from the Diocese of Nevada as presiding bishop. Her naming to the American Episcopal Church's highest office on Nov. 4, he said, rubber stamps the non-traditional path he believes the church is heading down. the rest