Bishop Duncan preaches at breakaway church

Dec 08, 2008
Marti Maguire, The Associated Press

A Raleigh congregation that broke with the Episcopal church after its consecration of a gay bishop welcomed a new national leader Sunday -- days after a new denomination was formed from splinter groups in the United States and Canada who had also left the church.

Bishop Robert Duncan's sermon at Holy Trinity Church was his first since the announcement Wednesday that 11 groups of former Episcopalians will form the new Anglican Church of North America. Duncan, bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese, will lead the new denomination as its first archbishop.

Holy Trinity is aligned with one of the member groups of the new church, which are united by a distaste for what they say is the liberal direction of the established national church, the Episcopal Church USA. the rest