Conservative Episcopalians leaving church

WHEATON, Ill., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The conservative segment of the Episcopal Church is forming its own branch of Anglicanism in the United States, its leaders said Wednesday.

Conservative Episcopalian representatives voted in favor of splitting from the U.S. church at a meeting in Wheaton, Ill., The Washington Post reported in its Thursday edition.

The group, upset with the U.S. church's ordination of an openly gay bishop and other liberal trends, intends to seek recognition of its separate status in the worldwide Anglican church, the Post said.

Cracks in the Episcopal Church have been spreading the past five years as a number of parishes and dioceses have voted to leave.

We "simply continue to be clear that The Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada and the La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, comprise the official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America," the Rev. Charles K. Robertson, an adviser to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, said in a statement. "And we reiterate what has been true of Anglicanism for centuries: that there is room within The Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ."