Standing in the Light

In fall of 1998, Corpus Christi Church in Rochester, N.Y. underwent the loss of its priest, its female pastoral assistant and most of its staff over the issues of the role of women in leadership, the blessing of homosexual unions, and an invitation to "anyone who loves the Lord" to share in communion at Mass. That winter, about a third of the parish formed a new church, Spiritus Christi. In February of 1999 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester announced that those who had joined the new paris