Cohabitation, church style
Joel Connelly
February 12, 2007

OAK HARBOR - Two signs can be found outside a modern church building in this Navy town: One announces "St. Stephen's Anglican Church," the other "St. Stephen Episcopal Church."A case of cross purposes?

Nope, the signs are a symbol of divisions that have split some parishes off from the Episcopal Church. And they signal a bid to avoid - albeit with major concessions - the kind of rancor seen elsewhere in the country.

On Sunday afternoon, the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton was installed as the rector (pastor) at St. Stephen. The parish is made up of those in the Oak Harbor area who stayed loyal to the Episcopal Church after fellow parisoners at St. Stephen's decided to pull out of the church and place themselves under the "alternative oversight" of an Anglican bishop in Recife, Brazil.

About 250 people showed up, including 35 members of the clergy and two Episcopal bishops: It was a welcome display of support for the loyalists, who found themselves largely abandoned by the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia after their brethren decamped late in 2003. the rest