Breakaway Episcopalians install a new archbishop

With a promise to leave the "war" in the past, the Rev. Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh on Wednesday became the first archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, established after a break with the US Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue of ordaining gays as priests ...

[Joe DeCaro]

"Denominational realignment has dogged the Episcopal Church since it broke from the Church of England after the Revolutionary War. But never has such a large chunk of the church broken off in protest. Its intent is to form a polyglot communion with like-minded dioceses spanning from Rwanda to Argentina.

The ordination in 1993 of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robertson of New Hampshire, became the flash point in a long struggle between liberals and conservatives inside the Episcopalian church over biblical precepts. Episcopalians are still fighting legal battles in states from California to Virginia about whether the diocese or local church congregations own the actual church buildings."