"Our business is to provide locations for people to meet Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Canon Kurt Dunkle, the chief of staff for Bishop John Howard. "So it was vitally important for that location to be reopened and energized for that purpose."

The Rev. David Sandifer and approximately 160 members of Calvary Church left their building and the diocese following the years of tension sparked when the Episcopal Church USA elected an openly gay bishop for New Hampshire in 2003.

Calvary is now worshiping in rented space at the University of North Florida.

In October, hundreds of members of St. John's Episcopal Church in Tallahassee, including their rector, left that church in protest.

Five other theologically conservative congregations in the diocese -- All Souls and Church of the Redeemer in Jacksonville, Grace Church in Orange Park, St. Luke's Community of Life in Tallahassee and St. Michael's in Gainesville -- plan to leave the diocese and denomination by January, a spokesman for the group said.

In an effort to help the diocese move past the theological conflict, the 5,700-member Christ Church in Ponte Vedra Beach answered Howard's call to reopen the San Pablo church as soon as possible, clergy and lay people said.

Christ Church at San Pablo is at 2002 San Pablo Road in Jacksonville. It holds worship services at 9 a.m. Sundays, with nursery care available. For more information, call (904) 285-6127. "We will focus on sharing the Gospel in that neighborhood," said the Rev. Rick Westbury, rector at Christ Church.

Parishioners and clergy from Christ Church will rotate in and out of the San Pablo location until the congregation begins to grow and until a priest can be assigned there more permanently, Westbury said.

"We want to try to invest more permanently in the San Pablo location and maybe take a little more ownership and extend our ministries in that direction," Westbury said.

Dunkle said the diocese's goal, ultimately, is to have a self-sufficient church there.

"Eventually it will be a stand-alone congregation, but that may be five to 10 years from now."

Christ Church members participating in San Pablo are excited to participate in the effort, parishioner and eucharistic minister Jeffrey Bell said.

The inaugural service Sunday was attended by at least 200 people, he said.

"It was standing room only," Bell said. "We were running and grabbing chairs from everywhere we could."

Howard led the service and delivered the sermon, Bell said.

"He was upbeat and encouraging, and he talked about inclusion and moving on," Bell said.

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