SAN MARCOS -- The Rev. Eric Menees surprised his congregants at Grace Episcopal Church on Sunday by announcing he was leaving to start a new church that will be aligned with a foreign diocese within the Anglican Community.

Menees plans to lead the new church in San Marcos on Sunday. Regular services at Grace Episcopal Church will continue with the Rev. Bill Lieber.

The resignation makes Grace Episcopal the fourth Episcopal church in North County affected by a nationwide schism that has seen priests and sometimes entire congregations leaving the church.

The split has been felt in Fallbrook and Oceanside, where congregations voted to change the names of their churches from Episcopal to Anglican, and in Vista, where a priest quit the Episcopal church but plans to return to the city and start an Anglican church.

A congregation in Alpine also voted to leave the Episcopal Church this year.

"This decision is, perhaps, the most difficult of my life and is not made out of anger or haste but ultimately out of a desire to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus and to be a man of integrity," Menees wrote to the diocese in his resignation letter, dated Sept. 2.

In his letter, Menees' reasons echo those cited by conservative Episcopalians who see the national church as rejecting traditional gospel.

"(The) General Convention of 2003 marked the turning point at which the new gospel of radical inclusion became official teaching of the Episcopal Church," he wrote. While Menees did not mention him by name, 2003 was the year the General Convention of the Episcopal Church affirmed Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire.

Menees, who was with Grace Episcopal for seven of his 19 years as a priest, also cited this year's selection of Katharine Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of USA -- the first female to lead the national church -- as another example of "radical inclusion" in the church.

"It's simply a moment of conviction following three years of prayer," Menees said Tuesday. "I cannot in good conscience remain a priest in the Episcopal Church."

Menees will lead the newly formed Anglican Church of the Resurrection at 11 a.m. Sunday. Without a church of its own, the congregation for now will meet at Community Christian Church, 1645 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road, San Marcos. Menees said he does not know how many congregants will follow him from Grace Episcopal, but the organist, choir director, youth director and children's ministry director will join him.

The Anglican Church of the Resurrection will be under Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Argentina Diocese. The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican community. Nationwide, the congregations that have split from the Episcopal Church have aligned with more conservative Anglican dioceses in nations such as Bolivia and Angola.

Episcopal Bishop James Mathes at the San Diego Diocese said he had tried to reach out to Menees and others unhappy with the local leadership by inviting conservative Bishop Jeffrey Steenson of the Diocese of Rio Grande (New Mexico and West Texas) to San Diego in February.

Mathes said Steenson had been offered as a liaison to the more conservative congregations. "That's an effort to try to bridge differences, and that's not been accepted."

Menees said the offer wasn't accepted because Mathes wanted to be involved in meetings with Steenson.

"How do you have a conversation with him when the bishop you're in conflict with is in the same room?" Menees said.

As for Menees' decision to leave the church, Mathes said he is hurt, but not resentful.

"It's not my job to fix the situation," he said. "It's my job to love the people, and that includes loving people who don't love me, and who might even hurt me intentionally or unintentionally. The truth is I love the people of Grace and San Marcos, and I love Eric Menees. So this is a sad day for me. I'm grieving."

- Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

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