In a letter to the congregation, Allen said he has loved his time at St. Paul's, but his dissatisfaction with The Episcopal Church made it difficult for him to continue within the organization.

"During the last few years, our (national) Episcopal Church has continued to embrace a wide range of and often conflicting teachings regarding scriptural authority, the divinity of Christ, and affirming other religions at the price of evangelism," Allen wrote.

"Since I do not agree with their direction," he wrote, "my leadership as a rector would become a divisive issue rather than a reconciling blessing in future parish discussions about how we should participate with and support our diocese and national church."

Allen was away this week and unavailable for comment.

The announcement came as a surprise to many in the 1,400-member congregation, said the Rev. Charles W. Whitmore, an associate pastor who is now the church's priest in charge. The congregation had already been dealing with the loss of members who left to start St. Brendan's. They were few in number, but many were strong, active members involved with church leadership and hold deep friendships with those who stayed.

"There's a lot of sadness," Whitmore said. "'Can't we work this out? Don't we have the main core things in common - our belief in Jesus? Isn't that enough to hold us together?' It's a hard time."

Episcopal congregations throughout the nation are struggling with the same questions. Some entire congregations, including at least two in Western Washington, have left the church rather than remain part of a national church they worry is straying too far from their core beliefs.

St. Brendan's, which has about 30 members who attend Sunday services, meets in the chapel of St. Paul's Academy.

For Moheb Ghali, one of the founders of St. Brendan's, the dispute boils down to a few key issues, including the nature of Jesus Christ himself.

"Is he the son of God or was he just a good prophet?" Ghali asks. He worries the national church teaches that Jesus represents "a way, not the way" to salvation.

Ghali, a vice provost at Western Washington University, also believes the national church is watering down the authority of the Bible, which he feels was "written by people inspired by God and it does reflect the standards we ought to be held accountable to."

Peg Swieringa of Custer said she and her husband, Gerry, are still close with many members of the St. Paul's congregation. But it's the national church they couldn't remain a part of.

"I think the national church is leaning away from a lot of those very basic, basic beliefs," said Peg, who attends both St. Brendan's and Christ Episcopal Church in Blaine. "They're becoming more and more liberal and trying to include all kinds of cultures and all kinds of religions, which then sort of detracts from our own religion. St. Brendan's is trying to go back to that and to the basics of our faith."

But Episcopal Church leaders say the church's core beliefs haven't changed.

"What I've heard from some people - that we no longer believe in the divinity of Christ - I don't even know where that's coming from," said the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. "It's certainly not true for me. I don't see any real movement in that direction as they point to in the Episcopal Church, either."

And the Bible, Rickel said, "is our authoritative text."

But Ghali said the consecration in 2003 of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire stands out as a symptom of the national church's drift away from the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of churches rooted in the Church of England.

The event has drawn sharp criticism from other church bodies within the Anglican Communion, who say ordaining a gay bishop goes against biblical scripture.

No one part of the Anglican Communion should take such a drastic departure without the consent of the entire body, Ghali said.

"It's sort of like, 'My hand cannot walk away from my body, because it discovered it's smarter than my feet,'" he said.

Many mainline Christian denominations are struggling with the same issues, Whitmore said: inclusiveness, multiculturalism, the authority of biblical scripture, exploring the divinity of Jesus and "how do we express the truth in the Gospel for the 21st century."

But Rickel, the bishop, worries that the Episcopal church is losing what he sees as one of its greatest attributes - its ability to hold a diversity of thought in one large religious body.

Diane Parker, a St. Paul's member since 1984, wishes there had been more discussion among the congregation before the members left to start St. Brendan's.

"If we'd had those conversations internally, we could have had agreement about what we were disagreeing about," she said. "What some folks think has happened is, we've kind of lost some of that ability to be that forum, where it's safe to express those ideas."

But Allen's departure might bring about the opportunity for the kind of talks Parker wishes took place before he left. As the congregation's senior warden, she'll help guide the membership through a self-examination of what they believe, and what they need in their next rector.

And she expects members of the congregation will continue to have close ties to those at St. Brendan's.

"There's a lot of friendships on both sides," she said. "Our philosophy is going to be, 'Go, God bless, and the porch lights are on.'"

Ghali hopes the new church will grow, but not at the expense of St. Paul's membership. He hopes the growth comes from the surrounding neighborhood of people who don't go to church now.

And members haven't completely cut their ties to their old church. Gerry Swieringa still leads a discussion group at St. Paul's and plans to continue.

"I still don't feel like I left St. Paul's," he said. "I left the Episcopal Church. There's definitely a difference."

END