Episcopal breakaways get 'back to the basics’

Is it or isn’t it a denomination? On new Anglican group, bishop won’t quite say.
By Jeff Brumley
Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010

After five years worshiping in non-traditional spaces - first in an elementary school and now in a strip mall - Steve MacDonald said he's excited to see his Jacksonville rector become a bishop today in the newly formed Anglican Church in North America.

MacDonald is one of thousands in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, and hundreds of thousands nationally, who stepped away from the Episcopal Church after an openly gay priest became the bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. He worships at Church of the Redeemer (Anglican), led by bishop-elect Neil Lebhar.

While issues of Scriptural interpretation, doctrinal orthodoxy and adherence to Christian tradition are most important to MacDonald, the 57-year-old former Roman Catholic said it's a relief to see the "back to basics movement" beginning to gel into what some consider to be a new denomination. the rest