Since he took over as dean of the Advent in 1995, Zahl has helped expand membership from about 2,400 to 3,424 at Birmingham's largest Episcopal church. Sunday attendance grew from less than 900 to 1,249. And the annual budget doubled, to more than $3.4 million.

"I think it's been Paul's preaching," said the Rev. John Harper, the vice-dean who takes over as interim dean Monday. "It's his message and his style."

Zahl will preach at the 7:30, 9 and 11 a.m. services today and teach his dean's class for the last time at 10 a.m., with a reception after the 11 a.m. service. When Zahl takes the pulpit, the sermons tend to overflow with cultural as well as biblical references. He quotes rock music lyrics and makes literary or cinematic allusions to novels, little-known scholarly treatises, obscure foreign films and 1950s American science fiction movies.

"I don't think he's ever forgotten anything he's read or seen," said Harper, who noted that Zahl draws a youthful crowd. Eighty percent of the downtown congregation is age 55 or younger, more than half is under 40.

"I didn't come in worrying about membership or financial giving," Zahl said. "I trusted the message."

Zahl, 53, came to Advent after earning his doctorate in theology from the University of Tubingen in Germany and kept a high profile in international theological circles.

He especially played a prominent role last year as a voice of opposition when the Episcopal Church approved its first openly gay bishop.

"There's no question I came on very strong," Zahl said. "The stakes were so high and continue to be so high. It was of rather decisive significance."

Black flag up `too long'

That prompted a dramatic symbolic move. Zahl hung a black flag outside the cathedral for two days after the vote to approve New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

"I got severe criticism," Zahl said. "I got a tremendous amount of support. It was an important symbolic gesture to make it plain that something very important was at stake."

He said if he had it to do over, he would still hang the flag. "I would take it down immediately after it was noticed. I think it stayed up too long. Five hours would have been long enough."

Zahl said he's convinced all the hard feelings were smoothed over.

"There was a little bit of a rocky time after the Episcopal Church General Convention when a lot of people seemed to understand what I was saying as an attack," Zahl said. "I was trying to underline an understanding of a crucial point. That was the only time I felt I was misunderstood."

He leaves on a high note, he said. "I feel I'm leaving the Advent on a wave of goodwill," he said. "We have never been happier in all our 30 years in ministry. We've never felt better received or better understood."

Zahl noted that when he was rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Scarborough, N.Y., from 1982 to 1988, he was among the earliest clergy dealing with the AIDS epidemic. "Part of the irony was that I conducted the funerals for the first two gay priests who died of AIDS in New York and have always been warmly connected to the gay community," he said. "I have a hard time convincing people that it's theology, not politics."

Zahl said he wanted to stay at Advent for several more years, but felt called by God to take the seminary post.

"I had decided not to do it and had withdrawn from the search," Zahl said. Then the seminary's search committee voted unanimously to offer him the job anyway. "At that point we saw it as the call of God," Zahl said.

A rally point for dissent

Trinity has a reputation for producing priests who are willing to take on tough assignments, revitalizing dying parishes, he said. It also stands for traditional, orthodox Christianity and opposition to the denomination's growing acceptance of same-sex unions.

"Trinity has a reputation as a rallying point for dissenters," Zahl said.

That's not likely to change with Zahl in charge. "The stakes are so high that we've never seen anything like it," Zahl said. "I've taken an unflinching stand on it."

The problem has been that bishops won't send their priest candidates to Trinity, preferring such schools as University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., or Virginia Theological Seminary. Zahl wants to build trust with bishops.

"Most bishops will accept our graduates as clergy," Zahl said. "Our problem has been that bishops won't send candidates to us to be trained. I hope many bishops will look at us in a new way."

Zahl hopes he's remembered at Advent for more than just his theological stances. The important legacy is touching and changing people, he said.

The ministry of small groups, with 70 such groups meeting, has been an important force in shaping the congregation's focus and work. "The fruit of transformed lives is the lasting testimony," Zahl said.

END