Newport Beach: Breakaway Episcopalians look to US high court

By MICHELLE RINDELS (AP)
posted Sept. 9, 2009

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Marcia Kear's three daughters were married at St. James Anglican Church. Her mother's funeral was there. She said she found the Holy Spirit there.

But she may have to give up the bayside sanctuary, where sunlight filters through watery blue stained-glass windows and glints off the flawless copper pipes of an organ purchased with parishioners' tithes.

Kear is among theologically conservative breakaway Episcopalians fighting over parish property in a long-running rift over how churchgoers should interpret what the Bible says about gay relationships and many other issues. the rest