WATERTOWN, Conn. (AP) – The entire congregation of Christ Church in Watertown has abandoned the church, founded in 1764, and is severing ties with the national Episcopal Church.
It held its last service in the church on Sunday and future services of the newly named New Hope Anglican Church will be held in a community room at a nearby bank.
“We need to celebrate today, but we need to recognize there is a dying,” the Rev. Allyn Benedict said in his final homily at the church.
The next Sunday service of the congregation will be in the community room at the Thomaston Savings Bank around the corner.
The Sunday service will be held at the bank, starting Jan. 6, until they find or build another house of worship.
Christ Church is one of the “Connecticut six,” the half-dozen churches in the state diocese that disagree with national leadership on departure of scripture, including the appointment of a gay bishop.
In 2003, Benedict and several other Connecticut rectors clashed with Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith, who supported the naming of V. Gene Robinson as New Hampshire’s bishop. Robinson is gay. Benedict and Christ Church leaders also feel the national church is rejecting scriptural authority and traditions of the church.
In cutting affiliation with the national leaders, the congregation has agreed to give up its church buildings and property, estimated to be worth $7 million, and its name, “Christ Church Parish.”
The congregation also ended its participation with the other Connecticut churches in a legal battle against national leadership over church real estate.
, deciding that “it’s not worth living under this oppression just for the property,” said Paul LePine, the senior warden.
Four of the “Connecticut six” have also ended their connection to the national church, LePine said.
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