Initial attendance, estimated between 75 and 150 people, will be
comprised mainly of Episcopalians who stopped going to church after last
year's controversial appointment of a gay bishop.

"I'm the last person on Earth that many people would think to do this,"
Reeves said. "I've always been what you would call a company man."

Reeves served as rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church for over 10 years
and retired last year. His problems are not with St. Mark's or any of
the parishioners there, he insists, but instead with the national church.

After the General Convention, when church leaders decided to confirm
openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson and recognized that bishops are allowing
blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, Reeves said he began to feel
the church moving away from his beliefs.

"I strongly feel that I am not leaving the Episcopal Church, it has left
me," he said in a recent letter to the Tribune-Eagle.

Reeves' departure from his 34-year connection to the Episcopal Church
comes after weathering several major storms like the altering of the
prayerbook and the ordination of women.

But the confirmation of Robinson, however, was the last straw for Reeves
and many other conservative Anglicans.

"The perception of conservatives is that this is a gross violation of
interpretation of scripture," Reeves said.

The Episcopal Church's lack of official doctrine or statement of faith
is part of the problem, Reeves said.

The Church of St. Peter, Apostle and Confessor, however, will be what
Reeves calls "a confessing church:" meaning that the congregation will
be guided by a statement of faith and will not hesitate to state what it
believes.

St. Mark's lost 40 percent of attendance after Bishop Robinson's
confirmation, Reeves said.

Although he made a point to not stir up dissention because of his
personal view of the issue, Reeves said many dissatisfied parishioners
came to him for help and advice on where to go. He waited until he
officially retired before founding a new church.

"Episcopalians generally don't change denominations," he said. "They
just stop going to church."

Reeves said the new church would welcome homosexual people into the
congregation, so long as they are celibate or have the desire to try and
"convert" to heterosexuality.

"It's the behavior that contradicts scripture," Reeves said. "Not the
individuals."

END