Among Episcopalians, division is prevailing topic
By Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE RELIGION & ETHICS EDITOR
February 10, 2007

It's a church ingrained in our country's history, having arrived with the early settlers at Jamestown in 1607. Before there were Mormons, Methodists and Southern Baptists, there were Episcopalians – though they were called the Church of England back then.

After the Revolutionary War, followers changed their name to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, which became an independent branch of what is now the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Through the centuries, the Episcopal Church has given us more U.S. presidents than any other denomination. The Washington National Cathedral, which has become America's spiritual gathering place, is an Episcopal church.

So it should have come as no surprise that this storied denomination would find itself in the thick of the country's culture wars. As religions debated the role of homosexuals in their faiths, the Episcopal Church ordained its first openly gay bishop. As talk escalated about a female candidate for U.S. president, the church elected its first woman presiding bishop, the top leader of the denomination. the rest