Churches attempt to heal after split

Episcopal dioceses' 'divorce' necessary, tough, members say
Sunday, July 26, 2009
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh neared a split, Betsy Hetzler could not follow her beloved Church of the Atonement in Carnegie out of the Episcopal Church.

She moved to the Church of the Nativity in Crafton, but she still supports Atonement's rummage sales and collects the baby items that it gives to her favorite charity.

"I have friends there, but I feel a release not being there any more. My heart is in the parish where I belong now," she said.

Such words come from both sides after the Oct. 4 vote by the Diocese of Pittsburgh to secede from the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church, one of 38 provinces in the 80 million-member Anglican Communion, a global body of churches that grew out of the Church of England. The vote hinged on whether the denomination had abandoned biblical faith in matters ranging from salvation to sexuality. the rest