PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C.—The Jan. 15 vote at All Saints Church to leave the Episcopal Church USA has left many in the Diocese of South Carolina confused and saddened, according to the chairman of a committee that tried to work out a compromise.

"I think there's a lot of hurt," the Rev. Craige Borrett, rector of Christ St. Paul's Episcopal Parish of Yonges Island, told the Georgetown Times. "We are breaking with family. There's a tear in the family."

Hoping to find a way to keep the parish from leaving the denomination, Borrett and other members of the diocesan standing committee met for several hours on Jan. 5 with the vestry of All Saints Church.

The committee asked the parish to delay its vote for a year to allow time for leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church's parent group, to devise a plan to discipline the Episcopal Church for its ordination of an openly gay bishop last year. After a period of attempts at negotiation, the parish decided against waiting by voting (468 for, 38 against) to cut its ties with the Episcopal Church USA and come under the oversight of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, an African member of the Anglican Communion.

The vote does put the congregation of All Saints at risk of losing the use of its current church property, which includes an historic chapel and $10 million worth of new buildings on 50 acres. Episcopal Church laws state that individuals can quit the Episcopal Church, but the property must remain for the use of those loyal to the denomination.

"It's a risk we're willing to take," the Rev. David Bryan, one of the church's pastors, said in a Sunday sermon in the chapel, which is used for traditional services. "We believe the truth is more important than property."

* See related stories
Dec 22     Defiant church brought under diocesan control
Nov 07     Episcopal split could come at high cost