St. John's Episcopal Church in Savannah, founded in 1840, is the largest and richest parish in the diocese of Georgia, which encompasses the southern half of the state. It has also been steadfastly segregated. But the Episcopal Church's Canon 16, as amended last October at the General Convention in St. Louis, bans the exclusion of any member from worship in any parish on racial grounds. Rather than obey the ruling, St. John's is leaving the Episcopal Church.
"I believe that integration is contrary to God's will," says the Rev. Ernest Risley, 59,...
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