Iowa's Episcopalians expect difficult choices await them
Local congregations preach unity, despite disagreeing with the U.S. church on issues such as homosexuality.
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE
REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR
August 14, 2006

The members of two Episcopal churches in Iowa are learning how to live in Christian love in the face of the most divisive issue for American Protestants today — human sexuality.

St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Des Moines and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Durant in eastern Iowa are conservative congregations. Many of their members are deeply disturbed by the national Episcopal Church's ordination of a gay bishop, blessings for same-sex unions and the election of a woman as its next presiding bishop.

"I hate what it is doing to the Episcopal Church," said Ginger O'Keefe, a St. Luke's member. "It's my profound hope that we won't have to pull away from the national church. I have been an Episcopalian as long as I can remember, and I don't want to be driven out of the church." the rest